


Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

by PocketFullaShells



Category: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-30
Updated: 2016-07-28
Packaged: 2018-07-11 01:11:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 68,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7019086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PocketFullaShells/pseuds/PocketFullaShells
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Somewhat based on Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Sky, Floyd finds himself in a world without humans, and as been turned into a pokemon himself, and sets out to discover the truth and the way home, only to discover things that would undermine his own sanity</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Rudest Awakening Ever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Floyd Wakes up on a strange unknown beach, which would be the least of his problems when he finds he's no longer human, and he does not like it at all! After finding a Cyndaquil named Serge, he has no choice but to befriend him as the only tether to this alien world, but Serge has an idea that Floyd can't refuse...

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

  
  


Chapter 1: The Rudest Awakening Ever

  
  


  
  


"Floyd, oh god Floyd!"

  
  


"Floyd, I'm not letting you go! Fact!"

  
  


"Just a little longer, it's almost ready!"

  
  


"Dammit! It's...NO! FLOYD!"

  
  


"I'll find you again, I promise! You here me? Dialgan honesty, I WILL find you again!"

  
  


…

  
  


I never wanted this...

  
  


…

  
  


To those who may be watching – this is Floyd Munro speaking. That is, if anyone can see me where I am least, which I really don't think is possible right now. Anyway, a lot of things happened in my life over the past year or so that, well, let's just say I wish they never happened. It's just been one bad event after another, where I discovered many things I wished I could just forget about, yet forget them at my peril – there are things beyond conceivable importance I really have to do soon, and I don't expect to succeed at them. Still, this brief moment in time is at least allowing me to reflect upon my past, but past this point, I'll have little idea what will happen – maybe it will turn out for the best, maybe it won't. I don't have complete control over my own fate – I can only apply some influence to what happens to be, and even less to those around me, and it's probably only due to that and sheer luck that I got this far. I really don't have much to lose now, if you come to think of it, all manner of disasters and tragedies...

  
  


I'm starting to feel weak now, with...er, what did I just say twenty seconds ago? Mind's going blank...what's that on my body, err...can't tell right now...can't stay awake...and Dialga couldn't help me now...

  
  


...I'll see you on the other side, friend...

  
  


…

  
  


…

  
  


"Glurgh…." I groaned to myself. I had been drinking quite heavily after the band gig I played at last night, and I most likely passed out from all the drinking, or at least that's the way it seemed. The last thing I remembered was staggering home with my best buddy, Omar. My headache was throbbing, feeling like my brain was throwing punches at the inside of the skull, and my whole body felt it was being pinned in this awkward position that I was lying in. Clutching my head with both my hands, I rolled onto my front as my body protested with violence. I squeezed my eyes shut and face planted on the gritty ground beneath me – gritty ground that most certainly wasn't a carpet or floorboards.

  
  


"Wh…what's this…?" I thought out loud to myself. It felt like I could taste sand in my mouth – I must have threw up from all the drink, and due to the strange pains all over my body, I must have said something very wrong to someone. I forced my eyes opened, and saw the reason why it felt like I had sand in my mouth – there actually was. It seems like I was lying in some kind of sand pit, so I must have been dumped here after I was assaulted.

  
  


"Ok, I will never drink like that again! I hope nothing got stolen…" I said to myself as I slowly raised my head. Turns out it wasn't just a sand pit, but a rather small beach, or at last I thought it was through my blurry vision. I suddenly jerked fully awake – Portobello Beach?! I was at the South side of Edinburgh where I was in the pubs drinking, not the North! How did I end up here?! I spat out the sand in my mouth and pushed myself to stand on my feet. It took a mammoth effort, but straight after I done that, my the agony in my head spiked, and my vision became a blur of grey, blue and yellow. I stumbled and rested against the cliff edge – except there was no cliff at Portobello! I was a long way from home for sure now, yet I was too tired and in too much pain to physically panic. Mentally, however, I was terrified! Too shattered and exhausted to move any real distances, I had no choice but to stick it out for now.

  
  


About an hour passed of trying to deal with my hangover and injuries, but they didn't feel like normal injuries. They were literally all over my body, and it felt more like I took a run through wildfire than being punched and kicked. The beach was spinning slower and slower, and I could begin to make out a few details. There were quite a few rocks on the beach, and while it could just be my vision messing up, I could see some bubbles floating across the sea – very bizarre indeed.

  
  


A small while later, I felt healthy enough to move. I walked very slowly across the beach, using the cliff edge like a hand rail to support. Not only was my body in pain, it felt oddly disfigured, which was bewildering, since the pain was slowly subsiding, but the feelings of disfigurement remained. I must have pissed off a pretty powerful drug dealer in a bar or something for me to be beaten up so badly like this and dragged to some unknown place by his goons.

  
  


"I wonder if someone is around…." I mumbled. Looking around brought the headache shooting back, so I kept my head level and kept walking very slowly onward, taking each step as carefully as possible to keep my body perfectly balanced to minimize the pain.

  
  


"HEY!" I yelled, clutching my head with my left arm. It felt very odd and quite a bit shorter than usual. I couldn't even feel the little hairs on it, and my arm felt like it was shaped a bit differently. "ANYONE HERE?" I continued to yell. Perhaps someone could find me and tell me where I am, because it was very difficult to tell from my situation.

  
  


"HELLO?!" I yelled again, and this time, I could have sworn I saw movement in front of me. A strange figure was moving towards me, but the weird thing was, it didn't seem all that human. Matter of fact, It wasn't human at all – it looked like a strange animal of some kind. I focused my eyes on it, and it slowly became clearer – there was no mistaking it. It was a pokemon, a cyndaquil for that matter. I staggered backwards, realising the potential danger. Was I invading its territory? Would it try to burn me? In this state, would I even be fit to run?!

  
  


"Don't hurt me, please!" I said at the approaching pokemon. It carried on advancing towards me, fear starting to infect my mind. Clearly I wasn't thinking straight – a domesticated cyndaquil couldn't understand the English language, let alone a wild one! I never even liked pokemon – the creepy things always scared me with their curiosity of people and their rather lethal abilities that made any one of them a potential threat to me, yet society loved the damn things! But just when I was about to turn around and flee out of terror, it did something I did not expect.

  
  


"Calm down buddy, I'm not going to hurt you!" It spoke, and seemed to chuckle. I was in awe – this pokemon seemed to have intelligence more along the lines of other human beings rather than other animals and most other pokemon – I guess speaking to it wasn't that ridiculous after all! I remember seeing another pokemon who could speak, but I had no idea when and where I saw this it. It seemed like a false case of déjà vu, so I ignored it.

  
  


"You OK?" It asked again. "You seem a bit dazed and lost, can I help at all?" Its speaking unsettled me slightly, but it didn't seem like it had any intentions of harming me.

  
  


"N…no." I replied. Speaking to a pokemon like this just felt bewildering. I was aware that many people who worked with pokemon spoke to them, but to me, it seemed daft. Yet, here I was speaking to this cyndaquil. It acted human, so I might as well treat it like one for the time being.

  
  


"I'm lost, I have a splitting headache, I feel dull pains all over my body, and it seems like my sanity has been messed around with a bit, for I am having a conversation with a cyndaquil. I sure hope no one slipped some acid in my cider…" The cyndaquil looked at me with curiosity and bewilderment – he clearly had no idea what to make of the situation either. I noticed the cyndaquil was almost the same size as me, but even I knew they were very small compared to humans. Seeing this strange and bizarre incident, I couldn't help but force a smile to at least try and salvage a little positive emotion here.

  
  


"…Is that some kind of costume you're wearing, because it's very well made! I genuinely thought you were a cyndaquil for a moment." I said. It make sense – I'm looking at a talking, human-sized cyndaquil. It would make perfect sense if a human was inside a costume talking to me.

  
  


"…You're…strange. Are most snivys that odd?" he replied in puzzlement. I spluttered at this remark.

  
  


"What snivy are you referring to?" I asked him, feeling a bit frustrated as I looked around to see if there were any snivys about, of which there were non that I could see.

  
  


"Aw come on Snivy – you can't possibly be this delusional. I mean, who do you think you are?" It said to me, sounding amused by all this. I grumbled – it was relishing my current predicament, I was sure of it. Raising my hand slowly, I pointed at him to bring his full attention. My arm looked really blurry, unable to focus on closer objects.

  
  


"Stop calling me that! My name is Mr Floyd Munro – if you want to continue talking to me then you'd better damn well refer me by my name!" I said, getting a wee bit pissed off at him. Was he calling me a snivy? This confused me to no end.

  
  


"I'm just saying…" The cyndaquil said. "You know, I don't think you are OK – you should come with me." He said. He didn't sound like he was mocking me, but I took it the wrong way.

  
  


"Look you stupid bastard, I was just asking where I bloody was! I drank too much, and I somehow wound up on this beach, so could you just tell me where I am and leave me be?" I said in a headache-induced rant.

  
  


"…Wow, you're a bit of an asshole, you know that? I hope the rest of your kind aren't as rude as you." The cyndaquil said, though he somehow didn't seemed to be all that bothered by what I said. "You're on the beach just south of Treasure Town...er, that didn't look like it meant much to you."

  
  


"Sorry, I have a splitting headache, and I am lost and confused, forgive me for my bad attitude." I said apologetically. I could see that he wasn't trying to annoy me now, and I really shouldn't be antagonizing the only one who could be a guide of some kind to me. "By the way, why on earth do you keep calling me Snivy? I'm a human being you silly man!"

  
  


"Well…that's obvious, isn't it Floyd." He said gesturing to my body. "I mean, you certainly look like one, and nothing like a human, not that they have ever been seen around these parts. They're just legends themselves from another world, whatever that is. You sure you're not a bit delusional?" He looked quite concerned.

  
  


"I'm sorry buddy, but YOU are the delusional one!" I said arrogantly to him. "But I'll humour you – I will look into the rock pool over here..." I said and started walking over to it. "And I will see my beautiful, human face…" I said, and stood by the small pool. In spite of the cyndaquil's words, nothing could have prepared me for what I saw next.

  
  


"And I will see a nice looking...HOLYFUCKBULLSHIT! WAAARRGGHHH!" I screamed when I looked at my reflection and fell backwards in shock, breathing very heavily our of complete horror – either my eyes pulled an extremely cruel joke on me or it was...

  
  


"Man, what happened to you?" The cyndaquil said behind me, obviously trying to hide a chuckle. Hyperventilating, I slowly got to my feet and had a very slowly looked at the pool again. I stared at it for five seconds, before screeching very loudly, looking right at myself. I was covered in shades of green, had gigantic eyes, and a highly elongated nose, with some kind of leaf flopping on my head that seemed attached to it. All traces of my hair on my head and face were all gone as I clasped my hands over my very large nose. They were green, three fingered and not remotely human. There was no point denying it now, I was a snivy, exactly as he said.

  
  


"No, no, NO!" I yelled, panic surging across every single nerve fibre in my body. "THIS ISN'T REAL!" I said, moving seemingly randomly in shock in panic – I found the pokemon scary enough as it was, and now I WAS one! Regardless of outcome now, this quite possibly had to be the worst day of my life!

  
  


"THIS ISN'T FUCKING REAL! NO! My...my body! My own self! I...I loved it..." I then pointed at the cyndaquil with an accusing finger, scowling angrily and approaching him until my hand almost brushed his nose that would give mine a run for it's money in terms of size.

  
  


"You CUNT! You did this to me, didn't you, just so you could see my reaction!" I yelled at the stunned cyndaquil.

  
  


"No, of course not, I just found you li…" He said before I cut in again.

  
  


"Stop talking shit! You WILL help me get home, and this body – ugh, I want it back to the way it was! You will help me get back to my human self again as well, got it?!" I said, looking down at the rest of my body – it was a disgusting sight, seeing myself as a pokemon.

  
  


"Wait…so let me recap…" The cyndaquil said, looking like he was trying to piece things together. "You passed out, ended up on this beach, and got turned from a human to a pokemon.”

  
  


"In essence, yes. If you don't believe me, I don't blame you – I'm finding it hard to believe it myself." I said to him, starting to mellow down a bit. Sitting on a rock I sighed and looked upwards into the dimming sky, seeing the gradient of colour from the dark east to the brighter west. "By the way, do you have a name? I don't want to just refer to you by your species."

  
  


"That would be Serge, but most people prefer to call each other by our species name unless they know them very well. Oh, and while I don't think you're lying, I am finding this whole story of yours very hard to believe. Humans are considered mythological entities in these parts – some people believe they only exist in another world, and there's certainly been no reports of humans becoming pokemon." This unsettled me even further, sending the panic that once briefly subsided back with a vengeance.

  
  


"So, Serge, you're trying to say I went to a completely different world?!" I said, looking extremely fearful. "So, not only do I have no idea where I am, it could also be the case I ended up in a completely different world, and I got turned into a pokemon as well!" I then ran to the part of the beach where the waves just touched my feet and held my arms in the air as I dropped to my knees in despair.

  
  


"Is this some kind of sick cosmic joke?! Arceus, Palkia, Giratina?! You got me good! You win! Now just send me home..." Dialga would never approve of such a thing – he actually had a good sense of right and wrong unlike the lies the other three gods spewed to mankind. To make matters worse, I don't think there'd be a fellow Dialgan to confer with here, or at least that I guessed about this place, wherever it was. In hindsight, I probably looked ridiculous to Serge, but stress and fear was currently overriding any feelings of potential embarrassment.

  
  


"…I'm sorry Floyd, I don't know how to respond to that. Tell you what, I'll stay with you for a day or two, and see how you feel afterwards." He said, sounding a bit sympathetic, but most likely thinking my sanity was lost, rather the believing my predicament.

  
  


"Y…yea, I'd like that." I said and looked around sadly. "Thank you for staying with me like this, and sorry for going a bit, well, loopy at you. It's not your fault I ended up like this, you didn't deserve me screaming and hollering at you. I don't see how this horrible incident happened though – perhaps someone or some pokemon with some crafty powers did this to me when I passed out drunk. Perhaps it was because on of the deities hated me, as I mentioned later in my panic-ridden rant." I bowed my head in sorrow, and the leaf fell in front of my head. I grabbed it and it was indeed attached to my head, hanging there being very narrow and pointy at the end.

  
  


"Well, at least they remembered to keep my hair with me in some sort of form, if that's not scraping at the bottom of the barrel too much." I said, giving a very hollow, half-hearted laugh. It looked like Serge was in deep thought, hopefully trying to console me in some way.

  
  


"Nope, I can't think of anything remotely this strange happening, sorry. I mean, unexpected discoveries happen all the time, but this...if you're spot on accurate, has to be the strangest thing! Humans have apparently only appeared here once, and that was over a hundred years ago, according to old folks tales and legends and whatnot."

  
  


"Gee, that's polite. The strangest thing indeed..." I said bitterly.

  
  


"Nonono, that not what I meant at all – I didn't saying that you coming here was a bad thing. Well, to you it obviously is, and that's totally understandable. As for myself, I'm not doing too good either – I got laid off, and I'm unemployed, and I'm having trouble chasing the career of my dreams." Serge said, sounding a bit down.

  
  


"Gee, that's a pressing issue." I said sarcastically before back-pedalling on what I just said. I did want this native to help me after all, and antagonizing him wasn't going to help the chances of that happening at all. "Sorry, that came out badly, I'll try again – What is this career of your…wait, you pokemon have jobs?! Have you built civilizations?!" I said in wonder.

  
  


"Yes we do – do they not in your world? Anyhow, I've always wanted to be an explorer, but I don't have the skills yet, so I want to be trained at The Wigglytuff Guild, and eventually go independent." Serge seemed quite passionate about this. "You see, being a shop assistant was so very boring, and really, I only moved here to become an explorer." He brought what seemed like a strange rock with strange, yet somehow familiar markings on it.

  
  


"You see this? I found it when I was sixteen. I'm nineteen now, and ever since then, it really brought those childhood dreams of becoming a great explorer to the foreground! I remember this floaty green being that seemed to usher me towards a tree stump when I was taking a walk through the woods nearby Chaud Town during an evening, and I found little thing right here as soon as it left. I guess part of the reason for wanting to become an explorer is this – this must have been put there on purpose, and maybe even specifically for me. It's been bugging me ever since, and I have to find out more about this rock here – no, it's more than a rock – I'm convinced it's some sort of fragment left from some ancient ruins or relics." Serge finished his story, which to be honest, I didn't really care about, but this was about getting home! I had to at least try to feign interest to get him on my side.

  
  


"Fascinating...I really wish I could help you with that, but I've no idea about that...symbol..." I said slowly, looking at Serge's rock and inspecting the symbol on it carefully. Perhaps it was from some ancient pokemon civilization or something like that, or from some foreign one. I'm sure it wasn't from a local modern one, as surely Serge would have found out its origins by now.

  
  


"…Anyway, I really don't know what to do now. I mean, I have no clue how I got here, and no clue how to get back to my home world. Still can't believe I'm a fucking pokemon…" I said miserably. "Anyway, I wish you luck on your future as an explorer. Of course, I will accept your offer to stay with you for a bit, since there must be some pokemon out there who knows about what happened to me. I was pretty demanding earlier, but if you can at least point me in the right direction, I'd be exceedingly grateful towards you."

  
  


"Indeed so Floyd, perhaps someone in the guild can-yeeeargh!" He said, as I saw two pokemon smash him from behind – a koffing and zubat, both hovering and flying in the same spot respectively with mischievous intent.

  
  


"Now, now, what was that for?! Serge and I were having a nice conversation, and you just recklessly crashed into him like that?! Watch where you're going next time!" I said to them both and helped Serge up. "I would apologize if I were you – its good manners, but I suppose you've never heard of them." I continued on, my human superiority starting to seep through.

  
  


"There it is! Nab it and get out of here!" The zubat screeched as he koffing went forward and picked up a strange looking rock with his mouth before they both fled into a nearby cave.

  
  


"…Oh, no! My relic fragment! I can't just let them take it from me!" Serge said, running after them for a few seconds before slowing to a stop.

  
  


"But…I can't." He said sadly, looking like he was trying to muster the courage. "Floyd, I could really use some help here." This startled me – I wasn't totally surprised, but on the other hand, I was bewildered. Fighting for someone outside of one of my close friends was never my thing in spite of religious obligations to do for others with righteous duty. I just wasn't that brave or tough, and besides...

  
  


"But what can I do?! I've got no idea how to fight as a snivy! I wasn't even good at the whole fighting thing as a human! Can't you just blow fire on them or something?!" I said, my voice becoming a little bit shrill.

  
  


"Please, just come with me!" Serge said, thinking to himself. "Look, you don't have to do any fighting, just make sure I get out of the cave safely if things go badly."

  
  


"But, I just got here, I just got a new body, and I am hopelessly confused and baffled about this whole scenario! Got way too much on my mind! My friends and family are surely worried sick, and..." I trailed off, putting aside panicky thoughts for more rational ones. "Right, if I do this for you, you will pledge to give me additional support, within reason of course, in this new world and help me get home, got it?! Within reason, like I said..."

  
  


"...Deal, just please back me up – it'll be the best for the both of us. Now hurry, let's go!" Serge said, ushering me to follow him.

  
  


"Ok, fine, but you will have to protect me if I get attacked – I haven't a scooby on how to defend myself from pokemon, as a pokemon. You should really have built up more courage if you really want to be an explorer Serge! If you can't deal with a couple of run-of-the-mill jerks, how will you deal with exploring the unknown, full of dangers you won't be able to see coming?" I said as we ran together into the fairly small looking cave.

  
  


It smelled pretty bad inside, like the stench of a particularly smelly seaside, covered with seaweed. The rock walls that formed the cave's walls and roof were heavily covered in foreign looking lichen and moss, adding to the smell. The crashing waves from the beach echoed hypnotically inside the cave, and little scuttling noises cold be heard occasionally be heard.

  
  


"Ugh, this stinks! How big is this damn cave? It feels like the stench itself is making me feel dirty – I'm so getting a shower when I get to your civilization…you pokemon do have showers, right?" I complained to Serge, continuing to whine and moan.

  
  


"Nope, this is a tiny cave. Fortunately, it's a dead end, so they can't escape us when we get down there – probably a stupid mistake on their part. Oh and there's a…"

  
  


"Serge!" I said to him and pointed dramatically into the cave, and hid behind Serge. "Something moved!" I couldn't quite tell what it was, but I'm pretty sure it was a pokemon, something I didn't want to see. Those that live in the wild were surely far more likely to be hostile.

  
  


"Oh, calm down, it's just a shellos." Serge said. "Shouldn't pose a threat…" He said, but the shellos started moving towards us, not looking to happy.

  
  


"I think we kind of ran into his house, I don't blame him for being annoyed – can we just go back before it does something nasty?" I said, being a bit worried – I had no idea how I would take a pokemon attack, should I get hit by one.

  
  


"Ok, now, let's see…." Serge said, and dodged the incoming bubbles that the shellos shot at him, and ran right at the creature, hitting it with a full-force headlong barge. It fell back, and with a scared look, it fled under a rock. "Ok, that was easy!" He said, looking pleased with himself.

  
  


"Well done! I think you'd make a good explorer – you seem to know how to defend yourself just fine, you just need to work up the balls to fight for your artifact thing!" I said and stumbled a bit. "Ugh, kind of awkward walking in this new body, and hopefully I won't stay long enough to get used to it." I said, trying to adjust to my shorter legs and my vastly different body shape. Serge smiled and shook his head.

  
  


"Oh, quite complaining, you!" He said, chuckling. "Wait, I hear voices up ahead…" He said and listened in. I could hear them as well – I'm pretty sure it was koffing and zubat.

  
  


"Wait, so this is a rare artifact we nabbed Koffing?" The zubat asked him with excitement in his voice as we eavesdropped on them carefully.

  
  


"Oh yes – I think this could sell for a few grand! Now, if only we ran the other way instead of this cave..aw well, the cyndaquil looked incompetent, and the snivy completely insane – we shouldn't have any problems getting by them if they are still at the be…"

  
  


"Give that back, now!" Serge said, as I cautiously followed him from behind, seeing the two of them "It's not yours, now, hand it over!"

  
  


"Let's see…how about…no!" The zubat said, and started laughing hysterically, as if he heard the world's funniest joke. "It's ours now, and you can't do anything about it!"

  
  


"Well…" Serge said, trying to muster courage. "Well, I won't let you leave the cave without giving me the relic fragment!" He said, standing in front of the only way out of the cave.

  
  


"So, that's how it's going to be?" The koffing said, chuckling a bit. "In that case, well, we'll just have to knock you aside, then we'll leave – this should be nothing more than a mi…."

  
  


"Of, for the love of...just give him the fucking rock back! I did not come here through all this bloody lichen and stench to not see Serge get his artifact back – now give it to him!" I said loudly, showing off a lot of bravado that I didn't really have. There was something infuriating about the pair of them – their voices were a high screech and a low, stupid sounding one to Zubat and Koffing respectively. It was exactly like the sort of voice that people would use if they were imitating someone stupid and annoying.

  
  


"Ok, have it your way – let's go Zubat!" The Koffing said, and they slowly moved towards us, with caution.

  
  


"Oh no…" Serge said, looking a bit worried "What if they're stronger than me?"

  
  


"Serge, if you can't have the courage to take them on, then how are you going to have the courage to explore dangerous and unheard of lands? I like you, and I would want to see you doing well as an explorer. You can do this, they're probably just a couple of good who are all talk and no substance." I said, trying to motivate him, which seemed to work. He looked at me and nodded.

  
  


"Yeeaarrhhh!" The zubat yelled and charged towards Serge. Serge didn't seem like he was going to get out of the way in time, so I pushed him out of the way of Zubat's attack, and saw him crash clumsily into the wall, and ended up being completely dazed.

  
  


"Oh, zubat, you idiot! Well, I'll teach you both a lesson as I choke you with my fumes!" Koffing said, and smoke leaked from his pores. Nice of him to announce the attack for us!

  
  


"Serge, use some kind of fiery attack here, and you've practically beat him!" I said to Serge quickly.

  
  


"It will be quite a display." Serge responded, and blew flames at him – it didn't seem to be that strong or hot, but when the flames connected with the smog, there was quite a bit explosion that rattled my ears, making me crouch instinctively. Serge staggered back, but Koffing stood no chance, and was immediately sent unconscious.

  
  


"And there you go Serge! That wasn't too hard, right? Like I said, just a couple of idiots who didn't know what they were up against, haha! Oh, your wee, uh, ruin piece, it's over there." I said, pointing to it, lying on the floor by itself as Serge went to collect it.

  
  


"Good, it's not damaged." Serge said, inspecting it. "Let's head out of this place – I can now see why you were complaining about the smell." We both walked out of the cave, to see that the day was drawing to a close. A rather beautiful sunset was decorating the sea, as the sun started sinking below the horizon, making the sky even more picturesque than the last time I looked.

  
  


"Say…Floyd, I was thinking about this recently." Serge said, and I turned to look at him. "I wouldn't have had the courage to stand up to them, and with you there, I think you also allowed me to beat them and reclaim my fragment."

  
  


"Even though I didn't actually fight?" I said, giving him a look of curiosity. "It was all on you, you're far braver than I am. Well, you had more motivation at least..."

  
  


"Well, in short, I couldn't do it if you weren't there." He said and shrugged. "Besides, it's not exactly something that I want to do alone – matter of fact, it's often advised that you shouldn't explore alone. If one pokemon gets badly injured or knocked out, the other one can help the injured one get to safety. Not to mention the guild have recently started accepting duos into their ranks, instead of pairing up people randomly for assignments." I already knew what Serge was going to ask me, so I just decided to beat him to the punch and get it over with. The answer to him would be an obvious, but a nice 'no'.

  
  


"Hey Serge, I appreciate your concerns about exploring and wanting to form a team with me, and I while hate to sound arrogant or selfish, I have my own problems to figure out. I really need to discover how and why I became a pokemon and ended up on this world, and how to get back to my good old life. I'm sorry Serge." I said firmly, although I avoided sounding too mean thankfully. While I stand by my words, I did ultimately feel a wee bit sorry for Serge. He was a nice guy, and I felt a little bit bad for turning him down, but I had no plans to stay in this world for long, and I would be conducting a full-on investigation of what happened tomorrow. Serge looked deep in thought once more.

  
  


"Well, Floyd – do you have anywhere to stay? Or any starting point on how to figure out how to get back?" Serge asked me.

  
  


"No…." I said sadly. He was right – I mean, I can investigate all I like, but if the locals of the civilization can't help me, then I would be at a total loss.

  
  


"I was thinking…if in this guild we go exploring, we can travel across distant lands and unknown territory." Serge said, looking enthusiastic about this.

  
  


"I'm not following this." I said forcefully. "Explain why throwing myself into lethal danger on a frequent basis could possibly help me. I mean, I hate being a pokemon, but it's better than dying."

  
  


"I was just getting to that." Serge said, and continued calmly. "Well, what if we end up making a discovery on these explorations that could help get you home? I mean, it's very possible that on one of our explorations, we find information on how to get you home. It's unknown territory, and the answer will be in this world one way or another…I'd say it's your best shot."

  
  


"Fine!" I said, grumbling. It felt like a psychological defeat, but he was right – it was the best chance of me going home, and among the discoveries that the guild makes, I can quite possibly find my answers that way. A discovery that answers my questions could be right around the corner! "I can't exactly refute your logic, though where are we going to stay? I am not sleeping rough like a common pokemon! I am civilized you know!"

  
  


"Don't worry, we'll be staying at The Wigglytuff Guild, should we get accepted as apprentices. They'll also provide food and the like, so you don't have to worry about that either." Serge continued to explain of what to expect of the guild.

  
  


"Wait, that sounds not too different from joining the army. It seems to be based around getting in danger to protect people staying in the barracks, er, guild, and you get fed there. I never liked the thought of joining the army, or anything like that…but it's my only real option. I'm in. I just hope you're happy that you talked me into it." Serge looked very pleased.

  
  


"I can't begin to describe how grateful I am for this! I feel as though I will achieve far greater things when you're with me to support me and the like." Serge said, smiling broadly. I could tell he was waiting for someone to form an exploration team for a long time, perhaps even before this guild announced that it was opened for duos.

  
  


"Keep in mind, Serge, the first opportunity I get a chance to return home to see my family and friends, I will, and I'll have no intentions of ever coming back – understand?" I said, being as blunt as a sledgehammer. Perhaps not the best thing to say, but I think it would be kinder being blunt now, instead of giving very subtle hints about my strong desire to return home, and suddenly leave him in his time of need. Serge's smile faded very slightly.

  
  


"Of course." He said and nodded "Now…" he said and sat down on the sandy beach, and I sat on a rock next to him. "I think they require a team name for duos for easier referencing."

  
  


"Team Conviction." I said on a whim without really thinking about it much, but after a few seconds of Serge looking at me oddly, thinking I was referring to criminals most likely, I came up with a explanation. "Well, I mean, we really have to have real big convictions if we are to follow through with this – I strongly believe that if I am to get home again, this will be the starting point, and the belief that there is a way home for me and that I can make it there – that conviction will never falter. I need to see my people back home, and they probably need to see me again as well. I got in here, I can surely get out – I trust your conviction to become a top of the class, rich and famous explorer is also there?"

  
  


"You know what, I think I like that too Floyd." Serge said, looking at his ruin fragment or whatever the damn thing was called. "This has been nagging me for too long now, and I'd say with you, it's about time I really did something about it." A bunch of krabbies had started blowing bubbles on the beach, thankfully leaving us alone. It made the setting sun look incredibly pretty, but why they were doing that, I had no idea. Some kind of mating ritual probably, as they didn't seem to be quite attentive as Serge was.

  
  


"Well, we might as well face up to joining the guild Floyd – let's head and make Team Conviction a reality, eh?" Serge said and started walking towards town, with me just behind him. Indeed, I hardly expected things to turn out like this, even after discovering I was a pokemon, but this was at least a start I guess. I could save my whining and moaning for now at least, unless we get turned down from the guild – it sounded a really picky and intimidating place from the way Serge was talking about it, and I was already a bit worried about how they'd receive us.

  
  


"Haha, what sort of self-indulgent twat would have the building of his guild literally built in his image?!" I said, looking at the building in front of me. Standing by the side of them were two massive flaming torches that lit up the guild from the side. It was becoming quite necessary, as it was beginning to get dark, and it would probably close for the night soon. The building itself seemed to look like a tent at the bottom half, and at the top half, was built to look like the top half of a wigglytuff. In all honestly, it didn't look at all like an exploration base, let alone one of a high standard, and more like something you'd see in a theme park. I guess getting home wasn't as likely as I expected.

  
  


"That's it? It looks like a candy stall at a carnival, and it's tiny! How's that supposed to be the host of a famous guild?! You really think your hopes and dreams of becoming an explorer lies in there?! I'd look elsewhere, seriously." I said, feeling quite dismissive of the owner.

  
  


"Don't most people build buildings in their image in the human world?" Serge asked. Of course – it was an entirely different culture here in this pokemon land, so I could hardly expect them to live by the Scottish culture at all. Perhaps this was considered the norm here, so I might as well warm up to it, because I could be here for a while. The thought of that made me shudder.

  
  


"Very rarely…" I said to Serge, pausing for a bit, inspecting the building in front of me. "So…do we knock on the portcullis, or just wait until tomorrow?" I said, pointing to the entrance of the guild.

  
  


"We'll get their attention with this buzzer here." He said, walking over to a fairly large red button, yet refusing to push it.

  
  


"You think they'll be pissed at us buzzing them so late?"

  
  


"Err..." Serge turned around somewhat nervously, resting his hand on the buzzer until he was fully turned around. "Probably, oh...I'm not sure about this actually."

  
  


"Oh come on! I mean, just look at the damn place – I highly doubt they'd be that brutal and serious!" I said, being a bit cockier than usual. "And besides, if you don't have the guts to buzz a simple buzzer and take their potential pissed off rants, then I don't know how you'd make it as an explorer. Nothing terrible will happen, they'll just yell at you at the very worst. Just do it man!"

  
  


"...Alright then I will!" He said and pushed, making a very faint buzzing sound, that I assumed was louder inside the guild building itself. There was some kind of periscope to my right that I didn't notice before, and I soon figured out that it was used to check people at their front door.

  
  


"It's, err...it's am immigrant, Loudred." A young voice heard through the periscope shaft faintly, obviously not having the means or common sense to be able to shut out the noise properly. "An immigrant and a cyndaquil."

  
  


"Must have came from thousands of miles away. Go tell him to get lost or something – he's probably just blundering around not knowing what's what here." A deeper and far louder voice said, who didn't seem to be too happy about this. Their voices didn't have particularly defined accents, but like Serge, it seemed to blur between English and French, but I could only guess that the other factor was due to different vocal structures that was distinct to their species. "Well, go tell them that we're not a hotel or a tourist information booth!"

  
  


"I already heard you, and we know what this place is." I said out loud, wondering if they could hear us.

  
  


"The Wigglytuff Guild only accepts those from the main towns of the land – country dwellers and foreigners are not allowed in at this moment." The deeper voice said, which I assumed was the loudred. I did wonder if using first names was only for referring friends to in private, and mentioning the species name was the formal way in this world – sounds even more like the military than I thought!

  
  


"Err, there's not a rule against that, it says here that anyone who is thirteen or over can at least be-" But the softer voice was suddenly cut off my Loudred yelling.

  
  


"Hrm, I see, but I want to speak to the cyndaquil." Loudred said loudly as he sounded frustrated – he sounded paranoid as hell to say the least.

  
  


"Er, yes?" Serge said, still sounding nervous. I gave him an encouraging tap on his shoulder to try and keep his confidence. "Well, I'll just state our business now."

  
  


"If you're a salesman or survey taker, then you can fuck off. It's for your own safety, really – the guildmaster is sick to the teeth of them, and I don't know how much longer before he completely snaps at them." This seemed a little unprofessional of him dropping a curse like that. It was starting to give me even more second thoughts about this.

  
  


"No, we're applying to join as a duo as explorers." Serge said, finally breaking the proper news to them.

  
  


"Gah, one second..." He said and I heard footsteps that gradually grew fainter, before Diglett piped up again.

  
  


"Never mind him, he's had a pretty bad day. Though coming this late? Not cool!" He said to us before a third voice sounded below.

  
  


"What's going on here?!" For some reason, I could imagine a talking bird speaking like this – it had quite a similar voice to the school parrot that was in my primary school many years back.

  
  


"We have two potential recruits here, but one of them isn't from around here, to say the least." Loudred said. "I wouldn't recommend it Chatot."

  
  


"You do not decide who gets in and who doesn't, but I can see where you're coming from...oh, it's a snivy!" Chatot said, sounding a lot older than the other two, almost being as old as my dad! "Look, I agree with you, this is really kind of risky, give me a moment to consider precautions for myself if I am to escort him into the guild."

  
  


"Wasn't 'better safe than sorry' one of your important phrases that you taught us?!" Loudred said, clearly not wanting me in at all, but Chatot did sound like that he had a position of power in the guild, maybe second in command or something.

  
  


"In moderation, Loudred! You do realise that working with the guild is highly dangerous in its self?! Look, I don't exactly trust him either, but he's not carrying anything alien on him – barely a threat. Besides, they'll probably get turned down, no reason to worry!" What a back handed compliment – I don't think I liked Chatot either, but at least he was remaining professional.

  
  


"I'm right here you know!" I called down, but got no response. Loudred continued to protest with Diglett staying very quiet until Chatot eventually snapped.

  
  


"Ok, that does it!" He yelled. "I'll check with the guild master – I would agree that it's a risky move, but there has never been an immigrant who has wanted access inside the guild. The guild master will know what to do! It's his guild after all." I waited a few tense moments, until I heard a warm voice speak, that sounded just a little bit crazy somehow.

  
  


"Well, I think you are paranoid." It said, sounding very friendly, almost to the point of being creepy "After all, this could be a fantastic move for my guild – who knows what skills he will bring from abroad?"

"Guildmaster, Loudred has a point – how can we know if they are trustworthy?"

"Just let him in, I'll speak to them personally." The warm voice said, presumably belonging to Wigglytuff, but I couldn't decide if he was more friendly or creepy sounding. I'd say it was both, and in equal measures too.

  
  


"Fine, but I will keep a close eye on him, and I'm sure Loudred will be happy to do so as well." The bird-like voice said, somewhat smugly. I looked in front and saw the portcullis open up slowly in front of me. "Just until he settles in, and maybe a bit more after that."

  
  


Well, it seems like I was about to enter a building with a racist, walking mouth, an paranoid bird, a young teenager who looked sounded like he barely just joined, and a kooky guildmaster. Fucking brilliant. The portcullis soon opened and we were called in by Chatot, and as we soon saw, the guild headquarters were far bigger than it looked. It was all underground by the looks of things as we climbed down together, which was tough with these stubbier limbs.

  
  


"Struggling down a ladder? You'll have to by physically more able than that if you want to stay here! Chop chop!" Chatot said, flying past us as we landed on the floor.

  
  


We walked inside, and down the ladder together; it wasn't a comfortable experience at all. It seemed far more serious and intimidating than I initially thought with the unfriendly reception we received. I landed on the first basement floor just after Serge, and saw a couple of pokemon talking – a sunflora and a corphish – who looked like they had been working very hard today, and looked exhausted.

  
  


"Oh my gosh!" The sunflora said, sounding surprised, but in a happy way. "Are you two applying for the guild?" She seemed to be the first guild member I properly met, excluding Chatot who just flew past us, and she seemed friendly enough – hopefully the majority would be as welcoming as her.

  
  


"Yes we are! I'm Serge, and this is Floyd." Serge said, gesturing to me. "We're Team Conviction, according to Floyd here."

  
  


"Hey hey! Good to see more recruits coming in!" The corphish said happily, clicking his pincers a few times. "By the way, mid if I have a quick word with Floyd?" He said to Serge politely.

  
  


"I guess…" He didn't seem to have lot of confidence in the corphish, and neither was I. I walked over to him anyway, wondering if he wanted something from me, or to give me some passive racial abuse. I then decided to not tell anyone else about my former human status. I already felt out of place as it was, and the last thing I wanted was people thinking I was insane, since I was doubting whether I even convinced Serge.

  
  


"Hey Floyd…just to let you know, that a few guild members might not be so…accepting of your current status. Y'know, coming from way overseas and stuff. Especially Loudred – he has had a seething hatred towards immigrants such as yourself. Chatot and Dugtrio are also quite paranoid around them.” He said to me, though he didn't show any of that hostility towards me personally.

  
  


"As I experienced. Still, I'm picky about who I talk to, so I don't think it'll be a problem."

  
  


"Everyone else should be very nice to you. Please to meet you though, and I hope you get in – you seem nice enough." He said and held out his claw, which I promptly shook, and shook Sunflora's hand...leaf as well.

  
  


"Come on over Serge!" Corphish said, and we had a brief discussion together. Listening to the sort of stuff that Corphish and Sunflora do was actually quite interesting, but nor was it what I really wanted to do. I felt forced into applying for the guild, due to my circumstances, which didn't make me happy at all. It all sounded so dangerous, being attacked almost daily by less civilized pokemon that acted like common animals. I couldn't bring myself to believe I'd actually die here – I'm not even twenty-one years old yet! My birthday would be in about four month's time – to think I might have to celebrate it with these guys!

  
  


"Ahem!" I heard that bird-like voice behind me, which turned out to be Chatot, who Corphish mentioned to me as being the duty manager of the guild. "The Guild master will see you now." He drawled, clearly thinking that we were unworthy of setting foot inside the guild building. I scowled just a little bit, as he escorted us into the Guild master's quarters, receiving a nasty look from Loudred along the way. I shot him a puzzled look back at him, feigning to not know why I wasn't liked by him as we walked slowly into Wigglytuff's room.

  
  


Upon seeing Guild Master Wigglytuff, it looked quite difficult to take him seriously – in all honestly, he looked more like a circus performer rather than a top-of-the-range explorer. I was perhaps being a bit judgemental of him, but I just couldn't imagine him going into perilous situation, and coming out on top. In the room was vast amounts of treasure and artifacts and all manner of wealth – maybe he was the real deal after all if he was this rich!

  
  


"Welcome friends..." Wigglytuff said, in a loud but friendly showmanship style. "...To the Wigglytuff Guild! I heard you pair wanted to form an exploration team! Makes me very happy!" Wigglytuff continued to say, with an unshaken cheeriness in his voice.

  
  


"Er…yes, yes we have – we are Team Conviction." Serge said. Even he seemed to think Wigglytuff was odd as I saw out of the corner of my eye that he had to put effort into keeping a straight face. "We heard that you were looking for more recruits and started to accept duos to consistently work together."

  
  


"That we are!" He said happily. "Come now friendly friends, just sign this charter and you'll be an official exploration team of The Wigglytuff Guild!" I thought this was suspiciously easy.

  
  


"And there's…no catches or tests?" I said to Wigglytuff. I was never the best at telling what people were thinking, but trying to tell what Wigglytuff was thinking was like trying to punch down a steel wall.

  
  


"Not at all! You're work will be starting tomorrow!" He said, and took Serge's signed charter. "Ok, that's it official! YOOM-TAH!" Wigglytuff yelled and jumped in the air, and put the charter in a cabinet, and I started to really wonder if this was some sort of strange joke by him.

  
  


"Here is your official Wigglytuff Guild Exploration team starter kit!" He said, and handed us a fairly large box, which I promptly opened. Inside, there were two rucksacks, and I tried on one – it seemed to fit perfectly. A nice surprise really, and the other one seemed to fit Serge – it was almost like as if Wigglytuff specifically selected the rucksacks for us.

  
  


"Ok, there's a map here – now I can see this entire shitehole world I landed in." I mumbled, not really thinking too much about what I said, and instantly regretted it for the sake of letting terrible manners slip. Fortunately, only Serge heard, but he didn't seem happy either.

  
  


"Shh! Trust me, if they heard you, would not be welcome in this town ever again!" He whispered aggressively to me. "We are here – Treasure Town." Serge said and pointed to it on the map. I picked up the two badges that remained in the bag, which were, like the building, made literally in Wigglytuff's image – narcissistic disorder perhaps?

  
  


"What are these for Wigglytuff?" I asked politely, wondering if they served beyond mere trinkets.

  
  


"Ah, those signify that you are an official exploration team – going exploring and beating up criminals without one of those isn't legal. Fortunately, I can hand out licences in the form of those badges. Now, let's all be friendly friends!" Wigglytuff said, smiling very broadly.

  
  


"Is he high?" I whispered to Serge, trying not to laugh at the hilarious juxtaposition of Wigglytuff acting all friendly while talking about beating up criminals.

  
  


"Apparently, he's on a permanent one." He replied to me and chuckled.

  
  


"Come now, I will show you to your rooms." Chatot said from behind – he seemed politer and happier than usual, but I was guessing that was just due to being around Wigglytuff. We followed him out of Wigglytuff's 'office' and down a corridor into a room with two neat plies of straws and a window that I could see the moon when I looked out of it. It was hardly flattering, and I missed my bed at home already.

  
  


"Ok you two, this will be your room while you work for us." He drawled, sounding quite uninterested. "There is some food left in the mess hall – Croagunk wasn't very hungry, so if you're hungry right now, you can eat Croagunk's meal." I immediately started heading to the mess hall upon hearing this. I was starving, and I can't sleep on an empty stomach. On the way there, I only saw Loudred, unfortunately.

  
  


"Damn, standards really are lowering. Snivy, why did you actually join the guild, what are you up to?" He said to me bitterly, which I replied with a smirk.

  
  


"Well, unlike your parents, I was given an actual name, and it's Floyd – pleased to meet you." I said, and snickered a bit and walked into the mess hall, where I ate Croagunk's unwanted dinner – It was a lot nicer than I thought it'd be in all honesty. Perhaps pokemon make for being good chefs after all. The mouth-watering steak and vegetables were delicious, and it made me feel just that little more at home here. I relished this, since it would probably end up being one of the few things I would enjoy in this world, but I couldn't help but wonder where the steak came from. Perhaps there are regular animals here as well, that apparently only existed to serve mankind according to the Arceus followers. I really wanted to find out, but was too busy eating to bother asking Serge. One full stomach later, I returned to my room to meet up with Serge, who didn't eat nearly as much.

  
  


"Ah, you're back. Good thing they gave us beds, eh?" He said, fairly happily. "They're quite comfy."

  
  


"You call those beds?" I said, somewhat bewildered by Serge's lower standards. "Trust me, in the human world, we have proper beds, that I can sleep for over twelve hours a day on! Not just a pile of straw." I said, sounding arrogant once again, but I don't feel that it was misplaced or anything.

  
  


"Anyway, something I wanted to ask you – do you genuinely believe I was a human before?" I asked, I wanted to know if Serge was just playing along with me, or actually believed it.

  
  


"In all honesty Floyd…I'm finding it very hard to believe that's the case." He said to me, somewhat sadly. "But, you seem rather insistent on it, so for the time being, I will treat you like a human who's recently turned into a pokemon. Besides, a lot of weird stuff happens here, so it's entirely possible, even if it has been unheard of – I mean, who am I to say what's possible and what isn't?" Serge continued to tell me and rolled on his back. "I do wonder what will be in store for our first day of training?"

  
  


"Hopefully nothing too dangerous – I mean, taking down criminals would be really satisfying and please my lord Dialga to legally help to carry out justice on a larger scale, but I'd get my ass kicked if I tried it now. Just because we're qualified doesn't mean we're capable right now." I said. I was worried about what would happen tomorrow, and I wasn't trying to hide it.

  
  


"Dialga?" Serge said, leading me to believe that this society hasn't even heard of Dialga, and possible even the other gods. I couldn't fault them per se, but religious discussions with other Dialgans, usually my dad, usually gave me moral guidance and comfort, but I'd find none of that there. I paused, looking at Serge, really not sure how to explain him well, but try I did.

  
  


"The lord and master who governs and maintains the flow of time itself and hands down moral guidance to us – well, to the human kind it seems. Maybe this civilization is really young, is it Serge?"

  
  


"Apparently over a hundred according to historians. And this Dialga guy...I'd really need to see him for myself." Serge said as I tried not to scoff. 'Over a hundred years' still sounded incredibly young to me compared to other civilizations.

  
  


"Let's not go down that road." I said before I'd start getting annoyed and dive head first into zealously defending my faith.

  
  


"You still seem worried about tomorrow Floyd. Look, I'm sure it'll be just fine – I doubt they'll throw us into the deep end." He said, trying to reassure me.

  
  


"I suppose so. Well, I'm going to want all my strength for tomorrow, so I'm going to sleep now...well, that moon shining in our window, and the fact that there's not even single glazing never mind double is going to make it harder for me to sleep, so I might as well try now. Goodnight Serge." I said, and rested on my 'bed' and tried to sleep.

  
  


I did notice that ever since I met Serge, he seemed to be hiding his rock from view for whatever reason most of the time – it obviously meant more to him than I thought. There were also two things on my mind as I slowly lost consciousness and fell into a deep sleep. One, how was I considered an immigrant? Were snivys foreign to this land? Yes, that was probably it, and I could just ask Serge to make sure.

  
  


The second thing was far more troubling – a very short, but vivid memory of voices. One of them was mine, and I didn't recognize the other. I was yelling at him not to let go in this memory, and he was telling me that he won't, but eventually, he wasn't strong enough as I remember feeling myself get sucked into somewhere. I could remember how things felt and heard, though I couldn't remember what I saw. I remembered myself holding very tightly onto this mystery person's hand, and the strange force that was pulling me in. The scary thing was, it seemed like it was after the post-show drinking I had with my band. I didn't recognize the voice belonging to any of my band members, or anyone that I even remotely knew or recognized. Perhaps he had something to do with this, but I've got no lead on him, so I might as well forget it.

  
  


Eventually, I fell into a deep sleep, which was quite an achievement with all the things on my mind, which seemed to make the open window and shining moon obsolete. I would say that this had been one of – no – THE worst day of my life so far, and the grim thing was, that many more bad days would likely come after this, and all I could do was to hang on to what I still had. At least I'm not dead. Never thought I'd be saying that for genuine comfort...

 


	2. Are You Settled In Yet?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Floyd. being pressured into an exploration team. gets thrust into their first day at work. With no end in sight, bitterness sets in as he longs for his old life back home.

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

  
  


Chapter 2: Are You Settled In Yet?

  
  


  
  


"Guh…" I groaned, feeling very similar to when I woke up on the beach last night. The only difference was instead of sand, there was a very comforting blue carpet, and a voice I was really, really glad to hear.

  
  


"Good, he's finally awake. Hey Floyd, Do you have any idea how much you were drinking last night buddy? You passed out here!" The voice said which stood on a pair of legs. It was very familiar, and I recognized him immediately – the guitarist in my band and my best friend! So all that shit I went through yesterday was just a dream?! Well, it all made logical sense when I thought about it. What sort of ridiculous scenario! Why would turning into a pokemon and going into other dimensions seem real to anyone aside from those Palkia worshipping spastics who actually think that they – no – every human has a pokemon soul powering it. Even the aspect of souls themselves seemed a bit silly to me.

  
  


"Omar!" I said happily, as he helped me to his feet. "Real happy to see you here! Man, I had the most horrifying dream last night – I turned into a snivy! Never had any dreams where I wasn't...well, myself. Ugh, if I get dreams like that when I drink, I'm not touching it again! No way!"

  
  


"That's what they all say man, huh huh! I've had even crazier and freakier dreams than that though. One time, me and Scott were turned into flies, and we got stuck on a spider web, and I saw the juices get sucked out of him, huh huh, it was brutal! Well, we dream about crazy shit me and you. The rest of the band members have returned home, and in case you didn't remember from all that drinking, we had a great gig yesterday, and I'm looking forward to tonight's one."

  
  


"Oh absolutely." I said, and chuckled as I smiled broadly. I didn't even have a hangover from it all, which I considered a stroke of incredible luck. I was on a bit of a high right now, since the dream seemed to make me appreciate my life even more than I already did. Gazing at my human hands, I twiddled my fingers, rather than dealing with the stubbier alternative I had in the dream as a snivy. 'Time for some bass playing', I thought to myself as I mad a grab for my bass to practice alongside Omar, who was now noddling on his guitar.

  
  


Omar and I practised together for about an hour, trading his intense guitar licks with my bass ones, and yet, while we were practising, the memory me holding onto someone's hand, the voice begging not to let go and getting sucked into somewhere still remained strong. I tried to put the thought aside, thinking I still hadn't got over the rather horrible dream I had – it was of no importance to me now! Omar's cute little dratini had curled around him and nuzzled him gently while he played, making it slightly harder for him. I can't say I liked his dratini too much, for reasons I feel ashamed of – Omar was my best friend, but I couldn't help but think that the dratini was his best friend, which made me a little sad in a way.

  
  


"Oh, Floyd, look at the time! We have to meet the others at the Sneaky Pete's at six – it'll take half an hour to get down there." Omar said to me, pointing to the clock. It was quarter past five, but how could time have passed by that quickly?!

  
  


"How the hell is it that late…was I really sleeping until 4 in the bloody afternoon?!" I said with great surprise.

  
  


"No, Floyd, you woke up at one. Time sure does fly, and you'd better get your stuff ready, I'm not going to be late because of you, huh huh!" Omar told me, as I hurriedly packed my stuff. I mean, time can fly, but surely not to this extent! It was creepy, yes, but it was hardly going to shatter my nerves about tonight's gig. Omar's dratini slithered back inside the house, waving to Omar with his tail, since she didn't like going in Omar's car as we left his flat. I got in Omar's car, and we drove through the bustling streets of Edinburgh, causing Omar mild frustration.

  
  


"I heard that you were training that dratini of yours more than ever. Does it not bother you seeing her get hurt in battle?" I said to him.

  
  


"Floyd, we've been through this before man – like I've said many times, Dratini also enjoys it as a whole, and it's healthy for her. She wasn't getting much exercise before hand anyway, not to mention that dratinis recover from injuries really, really fast. If she really didn't like it, she'd let me know. That being said, it is actually quite sad seeing her lose to one of the more brutal trainers. I really had to hold back from smacking one particularly harsh trainer in the face, as he forced me to leave her in a pokemon centre for a couple of days."

  
  


"Perhaps you should have – that trainer should have been taught a good lesson. By not doing anything, you've pretty much encouraged him to do it more, since he now knows-" I said before Omar cut me off.

  
  


"Yeah, Dialga and all man, you've been through that with me as well. And even if I was religious, his chameleon would have probably burned me trying to defend him. Stupid idea really."

  
  


"Suppose..." I said, drumming my fingers on my knees. Religious differences was the one big thing that Omar and I did not share, but I guess I can't complain too much about his atheism. Better that than him getting sucked into a false and misleading religion like the Arceus following masses, with their bribery and blackmail of different afterlife tails of bliss and torture respectively.

  
  


Eventually, we all arrived at the Venue, where the other band members were there. We walked inside together, and quickly checked our instruments to make sure they were all working fine. I sat down on the stage with Scott, our drummer.

  
  


"I can't believe we got a chance to support Prostitute Disfigurement. I guess you have a set-list that's more straight-up death metal instead of the more techy and proggy based stuff, right?" I asked Omar, taking my bass out of his car. “Though, seriously, I think with a name like that, they were trying way too hard to be edgy.”

  
  


"Aye, we'll be starting with our most recently wrote song, 'Fifteen Minutes Left In Death Row.' It should please the sort of crowd that are coming, since there not really here to see us in particular, after all." Scot told us, giving the drum kit a final look over.

  
  


"Should be a lot of fun, I'm giving it my all tonight." I said to him, patting him on the back. I smiled as I saw 'No Forgiveness' wasn't on our list tonight, since that song trash-talked about my faith, but it was something I put up with, albeit grudgingly.

  
  


Ten minutes later, people started coming into the venue, but I didn't feel nervous at all. Matter of fact, I couldn't wait to deliver entertainment, and I hate to sound cocky, but I knew I was damn good at it. A live show is as much of a visual entertainment as a listening one, and I mentally prepared myself to briefly plan out the optimal degree of stage presence. Too bad wild head banging was a bit too hard for me with some of these tough to play riffs, but I could make do with other tactics. Eventually we were ready, and I waited for Douglas to growl the first line of the song and have the rest of the band kick in. Scott, Omar, Douglas and I were a mighty force, at least in my eyes, and the four of us were primed and ready to kick some ass. I saw Douglas inhale as he held the microphone close to his mouth and heard…

  
  


"Get up you Lazy bastards! Chatot will give us a bollocking if you don't get up and report to the main area immediately! I am not being late for you two, and I say you have thirty seconds at the very most before you get smacked for it!"

  
  


"What the hell Douglas?! That's not the lyrics…" I said, and the whole place became a blur, and I found myself gently fall on my front on the stage, where I passed out, but I could still hear voices.

  
  


"Floyd…time to get up…" I heard a smoother voice said, as my eyes fluttered, and looked around. The voice sounded a bit higher pitched and in an accent that sounded like English crossed with French as opposed to Scottish. Where was I? Did I pass out on the stage? The horrible realisation started to hit me when my eyes fluttered, and I was looking at a cyndaquil. No doubts remained – it was Serge for sure. I merely dreamed about what the day after could have been like. My sorry ass turning into a pokemon – it was real.

  
  


"N…no…NOO!" I said, leaping to my feet in fright. "It was just a dream?! I woke up, and I'm still a pokemon?!" My eyes became watery, as I began accepting the truth ."My life…was so beautiful back there…with the humans, with the band, with..." I said as Serge guided me to the main area. I was too miserable to even try to hide my misery, as I walked into the main area, where everyone was waiting.

  
  


"Ah, so everyone's finally here, and just in time too. Always great to see a full attendance!" Chatot said happily, as he looked at everyone, giving me a surprised look at my sad looking expression.

  
  


"Full attendance? That's more than what I can say for my previous band at least." I muttered to myself, forcing a bit of humour out to try and cheer my self up until the morning meeting was over. Chatot glared at me, clearly because I didn't look as happy as the other smiling guild members. I got the hint and put on a very forced and faked smile as I saw Wigglytuff came striding, almost bouncing out of his office.

  
  


"Ok, guild, lets start off with our morning words of encouragement!" Chatot said loudly and proudly. "Number one!"

  
  


"DON'T SHIRK WORK!" The rest of the guild yelled in unison. Serge and I said it quietly straight afterwards, but nobody seemed to notice, but to be fair, it was the first time we had ever came to the guild before, so we didn't know what the 'words of encouragement' were.

  
  


"Number two!" Chatot said loudly, holding his wings up, signalling everyone to scream the following.

  
  


"RUN AWAY AND PAY!" Everyone said this again apart from myself. This wasn't encouragement to me, this was more like an outright threat! I never thought joining the guild was a very good idea to begin with, and now my initial thoughts and fears about this guild and its potentially militaristic nature were true.

  
  


"And finally, number three, let's make this even louder!" Chatot announced.

  
  


"SMILES GO FOR MILES!" Too bad I wasn't in a position or mood to smile right now, well, I still had the forced smile on my face, but it was painful to hold. I saw the guild get to their duties. We wandered off in their general direction until we were stopped Chatot.

  
  


"Oh Team Conviction! You have no idea what to do – you haven't been assigned your task for today!" He said hastily to us.

  
  


"Oh, of course." Serge said and chuckled slightly. "So, what are we to do today Chatot?" There was something about Chatot that I really didn't like, and from the way he looked at me, it seemed like the feeling was mutual, which reminded me about the fact that I was considered an immigrant in these parts. I decided not to ask Chatot, since he would probably assume I was crazy to not know where I'm from, or at least, where the guild thought I was from.

  
  


"OK, now, you see there is a spoink who lost the orb on top of his head, and he has requested that one of the guild teams should recover it." Chatot said to us. Serge didn't seem impressed at this fairly simple sounding task.

  
  


"What, so we're just picking up something that some pokemon lost in his travels?" Serge said, sounding unimpressed.

  
  


"Oh, nonono Chatot, that's a wonderful first task for us! Testing the waters, eh?" I said, happy that we had a simple sounding task, and I chuckled a small bit.

  
  


"Floyd, that was the first good thought you've had in this guild, unlike all the other times. It was as clear as crystal that your smile was faked back there, and I hope for your sake that the guildmaster didn't pick up on your fake smile. Hopefully, however, this is a sign that you are starting to redeem yourself – you will make sure that is the case, right? Anyway, Serge, don't you realise how important the orb is to the spoink? Spoinks get incredibly depressed without it, eventually leading into insanity. Suicide from incidents like this are not unheard of, so this is not 'picking up something that some pokemon lost in his travels', this could ultimately save a pokemon from going completely crazy, does that make you feel important Serge?!" Chatot ranted on and on for a bit before Serge put up his hand.

  
  


"Ok, Ok, we'll get going." Serge said, sounding a wee bit frustrated with the way Chatot was speaking to them.

  
  


"Serge, we have no idea where it could be.” I said before turning to Chatot. “Chatot, do you know the rough whereabouts of where it was dropped."

  
  


"Perhaps I'll one day think good of you Floyd. Anyway, it's at The Drenched Bluff." Chatot said, and pointed on the map on the wall, which was the exact same design as the map that Wigglytuff gave us. "Just west of here, not far. Well, get to it! Oh, and before you go off; Floyd, you really, really need to look more cheerful in front of our guildmaster – his fury towards everyone in the guild, including myself, is actually terrifying, trust me! Don't have that long face again next time, got it?!"

  
  


"Sir!" Serge said to Chatot with respect and we walked outside of the guild and headed to The Drenched Bluff. It was a short, but somewhat pleasant walk there with a nice breeze that gently pushed us towards our destination. The sun seemed to be hot, but I didn't mind it as much as I normally would – perhaps it was due to the fact that I became a snivy. Matter of fact, all the sun was making me feel a bit hyper, and I was grinning broadly.

  
  


"So, Floyd, you look oddly happy all of a sudden." Serge said to me. "You were almost crying when you woke up."

  
  


"I have absolutely no idea, and while I still feel happy, it creeps me out – quite possibly the strangest mix of emotions ever. Although, I have a theory – see this leaf on my tail here, and this leaf on my head? Perhaps it's drawing energy from the sun, and through photosynthesis, I am getting energy that way, which is making me perkier. I am partially a plant now, after all." My theory made sense to me, but I'm no biology expert on pokemon, far from it.

  
  


"An excuse for you starting to settle in nicely?" Serge said grinning, as we saw The Drenched Bluff just ahead of us.

  
  


"No! I'm have no plans of settling in here, now, let's just go to this bluff." I said, wondering why they literally called it 'The Drenched Bluff' instead of giving it a proper name.

  
  


"Alright, let's do this quick, well, and good! Let's go!" I said, still feeling somewhat uncomfortable at my own behaviour – it was as if I had a few dark rum/red bull mixes, my favourite drink back in the human world. It was also clearly affecting my choice of words, or at least it would seem that way.

  
  


"Glad to see you're finally enjoying yourself!" Serge said as we walked inside, me following right behind him. I found out why it was called 'Drenched Bluff' it was wet to say the least. I was sure that it must have had something to do with the sea, but I was sure it had to have been more than the crashing of the waves waves. They should have sent a geologist here instead of me, or perhaps a mountaineer or rock climber, since it was becoming tough to scale the rocks, especially with less able arms.

  
  


"I don't like this place at all, but it's our job, we should do this well." Serge said, shivering slightly from the damp conditions, obviously minding it more than I was. "The sooner we get this done th-" Serge was cut off when two anorith ambushed him with their sharp claws, leaving two nasty looking cuts across his body.

  
  


"ARGH!" He yelled and flames erupted from has back. He was ready to fight, and immediately blew flames at them, making one of them flee in fear.

  
  


"Get 'em Serge!" I yelled in support, as I saw him tackle the other one, sending it scuttling away, but another other one suddenly appeared and went in for another attack, leaving an even nastier cut across Serge's torso. Thee worst was still coming though – the one that scuttled away was obviously just trying to get help from his friends, and now, we were facing four anorith and a lileep. The chips were certainly down now!

  
  


"What the fuck?! I thought these were extinct!" I yelled, just noticing that in my world, they were wiped out millions of years ago "Oh, you are kidding me! Who's idea for a 'starters job' was this?! Serge, we should probably just run!" I said, just staring at them, advancing on the injured Serge.

  
  


"Er…Floyd, a little help here?" Serge said, as he continued keeping them at bay by breathing fire at them, but I knew he couldn't keep that up for long.

  
  


"But what can I do?!" I screamed again, much like I did yesterday. "Excuse me while I watch a documentary on 'how to fight as a snivy!'"

  
  


"Violence is normal here out of town, now, please don't let your friend get cut to pieces!" Serge said, narrowly dodging a pair of anorith that lunged at him, but the lileep then spewed Acid on Serge, causing him terrible pain.

  
  


"AAAHHH!" He yelled, and screamed even louder when an anorith scratched his softened skin, leaving a nasty gash, that looked like it was bleeding quite badly. I never considered Serge a friend per se, but I had no choice but to deal and confront this territorial savagery, whether he was a colleague or friend. Picking up a fairly large rock, or at least it seemed large with my significantly smaller body, and threw it at one of the anorith with as much force as I could muster.

  
  


"How's that?!" I yelled, at them, who didn't seem to be put off by the thrown rock too much. "Serge, I think blowing fire at them is a bit more effective!" However, Serge's fire blowing attacks were starting to weaken due to pain and exhaustion.

  
  


"Not effective enough..." Serge said rather weakly, small clumps of fur falling off from having acid sprayed on him, still groaning in pain. "Surely you can fight somehow!"

  
  


"I did say I didn't know!" I said, starting to panic, and was highly tempted to flee, hoping that Serge would come with me.

  
  


"Floyd, if you can't do much against these malnourished pokemon, then I doubt you'll ever get home!" I glared at him as we stepped back. Gritting my teeth, I knew he was right – I can have all the intentions and brains in the world, but unless I learn how to defend myself here, I may never get home.

  
  


"Hey, over here!" I yelled at them, trying to buy time for Serge until I could think of something that might actually work. They didn't react to me at all unfortunately, as I tried searching my mind for instinctual techniques that would be exclusive to snivys. "The line has been drawn here, this far, no further, bla bla...err...have at thee!" I said and leapt up into the air, and it was by thrusting myself into danger that I was able to tap into snivy-specific ways I could defend myself in a fight. It would seem that the leaf on my tail was, bizarrely, a dangerous weapon. I swung the leaf with great force, and as the instincts told me, it left a heavy gash in the thick exoskeleton of one of the anoriths, causing it to screech in agony and flee for its life. The others seemed to suddenly be a lot more wary of us now, now they could see that they had two threats to deal with. Two of them looked at each other before scuttling back into the darkness – seems like they knew who was the boss around here!

  
  


"Floyd, that was amazing!" Serge said, looking happier as he tacked the last anorith, clearly achieving a second wind, sending it packing, leaving only the lileep. Dodging another dangerous spray of acid, I put the leaf on my head to use and struck at its 'neck', going for accuracy over brute force, striking where I think its defences would be the weakest. At this point, I had entered a state of mind, directed only towards total concentration in combat, my mind being empty of all other thoughts. It wasn't necessary though, as the lileep already started backing off, which allowed me to find out why we were sent here on our first ever task – they didn't seem to fight back much after a good whack.

  
  


"Holy...did, uh, did we just beat five of them off at once?!" I turned around, asking Serge, who seemed very pleased.

  
  


"Yes, Floyd, I reckon we're going to get really good at this in time. Give it a few years, and we might already be famous!" Poor deluded sod. He'd have to take the bigger part of that journey without me, but his determination to do this was really something to behold. With wounds like his, I'd do an about turn on this exploration thing, but I never really had much choice in the matter if I wanted to hold on to my only possible path of salvation. "Sorry I wasn't doing that well here, the damp conditions really held me down." He held onto his wounds, trying to stem the bleeding as much as possible. They weren't dangerous wounds, but it was far from mild.

  
  


"It was weird though. These two leaves..." I said, gesturing to both of them. "How on earth did they cause those sorts of gashes on those not-so-extinct pokemon?! They're not exactly bladed...weapons..." I said, thinking about what I just said. Indeed I used then like bladed weapons attached to my tail and head – a battle-axe and sword respectively. I had the feeling that they would be going through very heavy usage throughout my time here.

  
  


"It gets even better!" Serge said, holding up some kind of orb with his right arm and holding his wounds with his left – surely that was Spoink's orb!

  
  


"Yes! They'll see that we're the real deal now!” I yelled, looking at it. "Let's get back to the guild so we can relish our first victory!" I said, though I was still deeply concerned about the future – I wasn't any closer to discovering how I came here, how I became a pokemon, and how to get back. Also, that was viewed as an easy assignment by Chatot – I would have to toughen and learn pretty damn fast to stay afloat in this dangerous world, but these assignments at least took my mind of it, which was probably healthy for my mind.

  
  


The sun was starting to sink in the sky, but there was still plenty of daylight, as evening slowly approached as Serge and I triumphantly walked back to the guild. Serge clutching Spoink's orb in his hand in victory before turning to me.

  
  


"Well, that went well, though it'd be even better if the place wasn't so rocky and damp." Serge said, still shivering slightly, but he looked like he was warming up. "It makes it harder for me to blow fire at them, as you can probably guess.

  
  


"Hey, you're still a far better fighter than I'll ever be, haha!" I said to Serge. "Oh, and there was something I wanted to ask you before we get back to the guild – why am I considered an immigrant?" I asked him, thinking of all the comments that Loudred and Chatot made.

  
  


"You really aren't from around here are you. Well, perhaps you actually are from a different world." Serge said, perhaps seeing some sense in what I was saying when I told him I was a human, and quite possibly from a completely different world. "Anyway, a few types of pokemon, such as snivys and tepigs, have been moving over here from across the seas. Well, that's what the authorities say anyway, and there has been very mixed reactions to all of this – some are highly paranoid about all this."

  
  


"I'm more foreign than they think, haha! Too bad I'm no closer to finding my way home again." I said, suddenly looking a lot sadder. "What if I never find my way home? What if I'm stuck in this rotted shitehole forever? What if I never see my friends and family again?"

  
  


"Well, I'm sure the answer will be out there somewhere Floyd." Serge said, looking like he was hiding his annoyance for me calling his world a 'rotted shitehole', which was understandable. By the time we returned to the Wigglytuff Guild evening was upon us. I looked behind us, and saw the sun going down behind us, so for a bit of fun, I deliberately tried to look badass as I walked into the guild, trying to impress Bidoof who was watching us.

  
  


"By golly, you look like you succeeded on your very first mission – well done! I wish I did…" Bidoof said to us, looking a wee bit sad. "I've been in the guild a whole month, and most of the time, I'm only trusted with basic errands. Aside from one time, I felt as though I wasn't of much help at all."

  
  


"Ah, relax Bidoof – your time will come when you become something great, I'm sure of it. What was that one time anyway?" I asked Bidoof, wanting to try and cheer him up. He was definitely among the guilds friendlier members along with Sunflora and Corphish, so I was hoping I could get a long with him just fine.

  
  


"I explored a cave and found a very rare species of pokemon that was only have proven to exist five years ago." He said, and Serge spluttered in shock, and it was the way how he rather casually announced it to us that made me almost do the same.

  
  


"What?! How? Holy croutons, now that, right there, is something special! What species did you find?" Serge said, being highly impressed with Bidoof's accomplishment, and so was I! He probably lucked out massively, but for someone to find something so elusive was an huge accomplishment for anyone to do.

  
  


"Whatever that it was that you found, if it is that elusive or rare or whatever, they should really be giving you more than just simple errands, unless that's what you wanted of course." I asked Bidoof, who looked a bit watery eyed at our compliments – bless that wee guy, he only looked fifteen years of age.

  
  


"Aw...thanks guys!" He said, also blushing a bit. "As for the errands, well, I guess someone has to do them, yup yup. Well, you'd better go to Chatot now to tell him of your success!" We did as Bidoof advised and walked down the stairs to see Chatot, who was looking through a few papers, muttering to himself.

  
  


"Ah, I was expecting you two – I trust you recovered Spoink's orb." He said to us, looking quite stern.

  
  


"It's right here!" Serge said, taking it out of his bag, showing it triumphantly to Chatot.

  
  


"Excellent" Chatot said, and a spoink came springing into the guild from behind us, looking very happy and excited.

  
  


"Is that my orb? Thank you Convition!" He said, springing up and down for joy, and put the large orb on his head using telekinesis to do so.

  
  


"Here you go!" Spoink said, and handed us what seemed like a lot of money. "Two-thousand poke as promised on my notice!"

  
  


"Is that a lot Serge? It looks like it!" I asked, marvelling at the large amount of coins that the Spoink gave us, trying to guess the poke-pound ratio.

  
  


"It sure is Floyd! I really didn't think they'd be paying this much!" Serge said, grinning broadly at me, looking incredibly excited. Being rich while living in this alien world is better than being poor than staying here.

  
  


"Ahem, it seems like neither you two or Spoink know the rules of money distribution in the Wigglytuff guild – I'll be taking the money for distribution." He said to us, holding out his wings to take the money

  
  


"Wait a sec, do you mean we're not getting the two-thousand poke?!" I said, sounding quite angry as he snatched the bag of money from Serge, and counted it.

  
  


"Ok, here's your pay!" He said, and handed over a measly seven-hundred poke. I was quite furious, and for good reason! What a rip-off!

  
  


"What?! Only thirty-five percent?! We could have been killed out there! Dead! Deceased, or whatever!" I yelled at Chatot. "You have got to be shitting me..."

  
  


"No I am not 'shitting you.'" Chatot said, looking very frustrated, grinding his beak slightly. "Part of that is to keep you, paying for your accommodation here, and feeding you at meal times, and to run the guild efficiently. Also, you think Wigglytuff just does this for the sake of helping pokemon in danger? He needs to make money as well, mainly to satisfy his perfect apple addiction, er, I didn't say that..." Chatot said, and cleared his throat before finishing off "Anyway, like it or lump it!" He said and walked away.

  
  


"…I mean, even sixty percent would still be passable, but thirty-five is just outright taking the piss!" I said, ranting on and on until my throat started to ache.

  
  


"Ah, it's not like we have to pay bills or anything. That seven-hundred poke can be used to spend on anything we like, without worrying about essentials – that's all covered by the guild – it's not quite as bad as it sounds buddy!" He said as I grumbled. He was right in a way, and I was in no position to argue. I heard a chime from down the stairs, as well as a lot of clamouring.

  
  


"Dinner has been served!" A voice said. It sounded like Chimeco's from what I remembered from yesterday evening as a load of cheers were heard from downstairs, as well as a thunderous stampede of footsteps.

  
  


"Sounds like Chimeco's cooking is real popular!" I said to Serge. "Well, I was pretty much eating cold scraps the last time, and even that was quite good. Nice food will make my stay less harrowing I guess." I said to him as we followed them into the mess hall were everyone was already sitting down, and a few of them had already started to dig in. I noticed Bidoof was already finished his, clearly being a monster of an eater. Serge and I sat down quite slowly, and began to dig in ourselves. I must say, the food was like it was from a four star restaurant – Chimeco clearly took passion in cooking, and I was highly grateful for that and decided to not beat about the bush and thank her right on the spot.

  
  


"Y'know, Chimeco, this was a lot better than I expected. I was expecting just the basics, but you go above and beyond that, thanks a lot!" I said to Chimeco, who giggled slightly and smiled.

  
  


"Oh, you're welcome! I think one of the best exploration guilds in the world deserve some of the best food in the world, which I try to provide." Chimeco said to me. I continued eating the gorgeous roast beef and Yorkshire puddings, or as 'Yorkshire' as you could get in a completely different world. It was a meal that I already loved, but this happened to be some of the best beef I had ever tasted. The roast potatoes were also cooked to perfection, and the vegetables were juicy, and were by no means at all an add-on to eat. Well, that's one good thing about joining the guild – the food was excellent. My meal was somewhat disturbed by nasty looks that Loudred was giving me. I shot him a look back before Serge nudged me.

  
  


"Never mind him, he'll probably eventually warm up to you if things go well". Serge whispered to me. Even so, I could still tell that Loudred was looking for an excuse to appeal to get me out of the guild, at whatever cost. There was something about him that was infuriating, and while I didn't want to give him a nasty cut with leaf blade, I secretly would like it if he was injured in some way.

  
  


"Well, this place is riddled with bad points everywhere – Loudred, lack of comfy beds, the fact that every day until I find my way home could be my last, Chatot, and being in the body of a pokemon. On the other hand, the food is brilliant, and those who aren't racist or those not called Chatot are actually very friendly!" I said to Serge quietly, not wanting anyone else to hear. "I'm not going to be able to get used to this I'm afraid, but what choice to I have? I might as well drown my sorrows in the rest of this well cooked beef." I said, and ate the remainder of what was on my plate. I finished, so I just decided to gossip with some of the other guild members.

  
  


"Hey hey Floyd, enjoying life in the guild?" Corphish asked me as I left the dining hall, waving at me once again.

  
  


"It's ok I guess." I said, not wanting to say I didn't like it, without telling an outright lie. I didn't want to dishonour the lord Dialga since lying was highly discouraged.

  
  


"Ah, you'll warm up to it soon enough. Although, you didn't exactly seem enthusiastic going in, how so?"

  
  


"Well truth be told, it was mainly down to Serge here." I told him. "He convinced me to join, it was his idea, but an idea I trusted nonetheless."

  
  


"Trust me Floyd, he made a good choice for you both! My first few days were a bit awkward, and even unpleasant, but stick in it, and you'll grow to love it – seeing the face of the rescued pokemon is always a treat." Corphish said proudly to me. "It's Sunday tomorrow, the day off for the guild, aside from pokemon getting selected to go on emergency rescues, so no recovering lost items or crap like that. Must be a bit of a downer having something quite insignificant like that for your first assignment, eh?"

  
  


"Not really actually, just something plain and simple was more than enough for my first assignment, since I actually kind of suck at fighting, you see." I replied.

  
  


"Ah, you foreigners are soft!" He said and chuckled. " Ah, don't be so touchy, haha! What was life back where you come from?" This was a question I hoped wouldn't prop up – would I make something up, or tells him the truth, and have him most likely believe I was loopy. I got on well with him and he treated me nicely, and I wanted it to keep it that way. I felt bad having to disrespect both Dialga and a nice guy like this, but I just couldn't risk ostracization!

  
  


"Truth be told, there was mass unemployment, so I came here to look for work. I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm kind of a leech here, but it was either that or certain homelessness." I said to him, improvising my story, and it seemed to have worked!

  
  


"Not at all Floyd, I'm happy to have you here. I bet you got some useful skills that no one else in the guild has – I bet you could be a great asset soon! Besides, it seems like you are at least competent, especially for your first ever mission." He said and yawned ."I'm off to bed – it's our day off tomorrow, how about me and you go and have a good time in the Spinda coffee shop tomorrow? Bring Serge as well, he's also a good fella, unless of course one of us gets called on an emergency assignment."

  
  


"Aye, I will do that." I said, nodding. I liked his offer, and it could be a chance to get used to talk more to my fellow guild members, and to explore the town. I've only seen the outskirts of it from the guild entrance before, and seeing a brand new culture was actually quite an exciting prospect. Perhaps I could stumble across a psychic pokemon who might be able to use his powers to learn how I got here, and how to get back. I yawned as I felt tiredness hit me earlier than usual, most likely due to the hard physical work I did today in The Drenched Bluff.

  
  


However, as I walked into my quarters with Serge, and we rested on our beds. I couldn't help yearn for life back at home – the beautiful music, the comforted and safe way of life, and my old friends. I also thought about how they would feel – surely they'd be very upset, thinking I've completely disappeared, but I also wondered whether they know what happened to me or not. The memory of holding onto someone's hand before feeling like I was sucked down a black hole, with my body rife with pain, still continued to bewilder me. Was that just my mind playing tricks on me, or was it a genuine memory, because it seemed to be so very much more recent than drinking with the band after the gig. I didn't see how it fitted into my life, but there was something about it that made it seem very real. I put the thought aside, thinking it just came from the stress of being a snivy. I gently closed my eyes and fell asleep. At least tomorrow won't be a life-threatening day, but knowing my luck, there'll be a turn of events that would make it into an even more dangerous day than today.

 


	3. Stream of Consciousness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Floyd only runs into more questions instead of answers, as he starts getting premonitions of things to come, as well as discovering a passion for crime-fighting.

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

  
  


Chapter 3: Stream of Consciousness

  
  


  
  


"GET UP, IT'S MORNING!" Loudred yelled rudely to us during the crack of dawn. He seemed to be the guild's alarm clock for some reason, always running into our rooms and yelling at us to get up, but it was Sunday, there was no work today! I groaned, and slowly opened my eyes, wanting to hit that bastard across his massive face with something heavy.

  
  


"Loudred, you bastard, it's Sunday, there's no work..." I said sleepily, but he had already left. A pleasant breeze went through the guild window, blowing sea salt on us, which seemed to wake me up more, and evidently Serge as well.

  
  


"Morning Floyd." He said, getting to his feet a lot quicker than I did. I sluggishly hauled myself to stand up, trying my best to not fall back down onto my bed, which, in spite of being a pile of straw, looked oddly comfortable right now. It was another hot, sunny day outside, leading me to believe that I arrived here during the summer. As a human, I'd probably grumble at the heat, since I definitely preferred cool weather to the baking heat, but as a snivy, I seemed to have an odd affinity towards the sun. Perhaps I did partially photosynthesise as well, and the pokemon instincts were instructing my brain to like it. It seemed like a plausible theory, but I really didn't think much of these pokemon instincts. I slowly followed Serge into the main area, when we were suddenly called upon by Chatot – wonder what the beaked bastard wants this time?

  
  


"Ah, you two! Now don't you worry, there's no work for you today, but I have instructed Bidoof to show you two around town. There are a lot of facilities that benefit exploration teams that I feel as though you two should know about. That being said, I trust you're already familiar with treasure Town, right Floyd?"

  
  


"Nope, haven't got round to it yet." I said to him.

  
  


"Hrm, you really must have arrived here recently...either way, Bidoof is waiting for you at the guild entrance. After the tour, the rest of the day is yours. Of course, doing a low ranking job on the notice boards outside will yield pay as well – volunteering to do extra goes for miles around here!" Chatot said, quite clearly wanting us to work today, but knows that he can't make us. At least he was being professional with the whole affair, which seemed to limit how much of an ass he could be. We then made our way up the ladder and saw a rather excited looking Bidoof, smiling broadly.

  
  


"I believe Chatot told you two I was going to give you a tour around Treasure Town, yup yup?"

  
  


"'Yup yup' indeed buddy! Shall we go on now?" I replied with a friendly smile.

  
  


"Of course! By Golly, at least with this errand, it feels like I'm directly helping people become better explorers." Bidoof said, looking quite proud of himself. He led us into treasure town, and my initial thoughts about their culture were proven proven to me. Pokemon seemed obsessed to build buildings in their literal image, which looked both egotistical and inefficient. I saw a building that looked like a duskull, and a further one away in the shape of an electivire. I thought it was silly and impractical, but on the other hand, it was probably just their culture and way of life. It was quite fascinating to see all the pokemon to be people, rather than mere animals which was what I was used to back in my world.

  
  


"This is the Duskull Bank, you might want to open an account now. It should only take you a few minutes, so I'll just wait for you." Bidoof said politely. Serge and I approached the counter, and Duskull turned around almost immediately to greet us.

  
  


"Hello you two. I think I may have seen you before, cyndaquil, but I can't say I've seen you before, snivy. I assume you just moved here, hehe?" The Duskull said – he was just a little bit creepy, and somewhat reminded me of Croagunk back in the guild.

  
  


"Yup yup, the two of them just formed Team Conviction a couple of days ago." Bidoof said.

  
  


"Ah, are any of you two in charge, or are you two even in power?" Duskull asked me. It was something we never thought about before, and there didn't seem to be a leading man among us, so I just waited for what Serge had to say, not wanting to step on his toes.

  
  


"We're even." Serge said to Duskull.

  
  


"Ah, I can open a joint account for you then. Rescue teams get double the rate of interest, to show my support for them, since the town itself practically functions as an exploration base!" Duskull said to us proudly, but I did remember seeing one thing in the guild.

  
  


"…So in return, the guild allowed you to advertise the bank inside the building?" I said to him, smiling a bit.

  
  


"Well…yes, are you two having a joint account or not?" Duskull asked, getting slightly impatient.

  
  


"This is like fucking marriage!" I said to myself and chuckled. "At least, money wise – work together, share our earnings. This is gonna cause problems, I can tell."

  
  


"Relax Floyd, it'll be fine, and we do get double interest rates." Serge said. Admittedly, I wasn't too comfortable with sharing money with someone I knew from a completely different world for only about two days, but I generally trust Serge's judgement with this sort of thing. After all, he has lived in this area his whole life.

  
  


"Alright, go ahead Duskull." I said to him, as we signed the agreements. I was being particularly careful when reading the fine print, feeling a little worried there might be a scam in there somewhere. One thing that I also thought of, of which I never thought of before – how did these pokemon speak fluent English? Considering this is probably a different world, and humans aren't here, then how am I communicating with them as if I was speaking to any fellow English speaking human? Or was I even speaking English? Was all this all pokemon instincts?

  
  


"Hey Floyd, we're done here." Bidoof said, suddenly getting my attention. Apparently, I had been standing still, staring blankly as I contemplated about such things.

  
  


"Woah, sorry." I said to Bidoof, as we walked deeper into Treasure Town. "I was just…thinking about the whole scenario…" I said, suddenly feeling a lot glummer, thinking about life back home again. I wondered how my friends and family would be feeling – would they be really scared for my disappearance?

  
  


"Floyd, you're staring into space again!" Serge said, sounding a bit frustrated.

  
  


"That's the Marowak Dojo to your left, though it's closed since he broke his leg. There's also a museum up that path, but that's also closed. you came during a holiday period, and only some services are open unfortunately, and a real inconvenience to us explorers. The holiday ends on Tuesday though, so you should be fine." Bidoof explained to us as we were lead into the other side of town, where there were more buildings. Of course, they were also shaped after the pokemon who owned them; how novel.

  
  


"Well, at least there's more open facilities here. Lemme guess – that place is run by a kecleon, right?" I said, seeing the the shape of the building being a dead give-away.

  
  


"Two kecleon brothers to be more precise." He said, gesturing to their shop, as we approached it

  
  


"Welcome to our shop!" The brothers said loudly to us in unison, clearly having done this routine many times before in order to lure customers to them..

  
  


"Look at our merchandise and give us all your money!" I said quietly under my breath to Serge in a mocking tone.

  
  


"Hello you two." Serge said, who had obviously been here before quite a few times. "Bidoof was showing us around, well, mostly Floyd over here. He just arrived here a couple of days ago, and it's his first day really walking around Treasure Town."

  
  


"A snivy?" The green one said, and they suddenly began talking to each other, quietly, but very quickly. I couldn't make out the exact words, but I think they might have been considering offering me a discount to try and get me, and other immigrants, on their side. I'd be sure to take a good bargain any day!

  
  


"Yes, we have a special section that assists exploration teams such as the pair of you." The purple one said. He was about to display his wares to us, when I saw an azurill and a marill approach from the right, evidently intending to buy stuff, and this obviously swiped the attention of the enthusiastic shop-owners.

  
  


"Hello!" The marill said, with the azurill right behind her. "Bad news, momma Azumarill is sick, so we have to buy our food for our family this time." She said to them. She seemed like she only just reached adolescence, and I was quite impressed to see her take responsibility at this age. "Oh sorry, were you buying something you two?"

  
  


"Well, I'm not entirely sure – you go ahead anyway." I said to them. I didn't particularly care for them, but I though that common courtesy was not to go amiss.

  
  


"Thank you mister!" The azurill said, clearly only a child who couldn't have been over seven years old, or thereabouts "Three apples please!"

  
  


"That will be fifty poke." The green one said, handing over the apples, and taking the money off the marill. "Enjoy, do come again!" The pair of them looked like they were about to walk off, when they suddenly turned to look at us.

  
  


"You seem like an exploration duo, are you?" The marill asked us. I was quite confused why they wanted to know, but I told them anyway.

  
  


"We're Team Conviction - why'd you ask?" I responded.

  
  


"Well, Azurill hasn't been himself since he lost his water float – it was actually very important to him. Problem is, that we have no idea where we lost it, and we were wondering if you, or anyone you might know, knows where it is." She said to us.

  
  


"Not me anyway, how about you Serge?" I asked.

  
  


"Nope, sorry." Serge said, and the marill sighed.

  
  


"Ah, that's too bad. Lets go home Azurill" She said to her younger brother, but the apple the azurill was carrying was accidentally dropped without him noticing. Seeing this, walked over and picked it up.

  
  


"Hey, Azurill, you…" I said, until everything started seeming heavy, and my vision swayed a bit "Ugh…" I said, staggering a wee bit. "What the fuck…"

  
  


"Floyd, are you ok?" I heard Serge say, but it seems like he was saying it from a mile away, as if the whole world was being pulled away from me at all sides. My vision turned to black, and a bright light seemed to appear in front of me. Was I dying? Was I getting a heart attack? Before I had time to contemplate such things, all I heard was a scream, and it sounded like it was calling for help. Come to think of it, it sounded familiar, but where on earth was the voice coming from anyway? Was this what death was like? A thousand questions ran through my head, but before I could fully think of one, the world seemed to come back to me, my heavy head seemed to lighten again, and I could see objects blurring back into view.

  
  


"Floyd? You've zoned out again! Except you've really, really zoned out this time!" Serge said, sounding a bit frustrated ."Are you sure you're not ill or something?" He asked. I paused for a second as the world came right back into view.

  
  


"What just happened?! Everything went dark, and I heard this scream! Just…what…" I said, looking around in a panic, eventually looked at Azurill. "Oh…your apple…you dropped it…"

  
  


"Thank you mister." He said to me as I handed it over. I froze right there, thinking about the scream – it was the same voice that I heard. Did Azurill scream?

  
  


"Er…did you scream earlier?" I asked him, and I only got a bewildered look back. "Did anyone here him scream? Did anyone here a scream at all?" I asked, but only confused and baffled looks were returned to me. Was it all in my head? Was insanity digging my way into my mind due to staying in this world for too long?

  
  


"I already know the rest of the village Bidoof. I've already set up a storage account with Kangaskhan a year ago, I'll just tell Floyd about out it when we go there next." Serge said to Bidoof. "You've been patient with us, so we'll meet you in the Spinda coffee shop if you'd like later on. Floyd was heading down to meet Corphish there anyway – you should join us."

  
  


"By golly, I sure will! See you soon!" Bidoof replied as he walked off. Serge turned to look at me afterwards, scratching his head.

  
  


"Ok…you heard a scream that no one else heard…Now, I won't say your going crazy, but…" Serge said as I sighed.

  
  


"Well, it wouldn't surprise me if I was! I mean, I don't belong here, I belong in the human world! This…body doesn't belong to me!" I yelled in bitterness, and sat down on a rock, looking up in the sky, as if to say 'what did I do to deserve this?'

  
  


"Look, Floyd…I know this obviously very tough for you, but, I mean, you can't just be mopey about it! I don't know if you are going crazy or not, but you can't…look, I'm sure you'll forget about it in the Spinda coffee shop. How about we just head back to the guild, dump our stuff in our room and go there, Ok?” Serge told me. While the scream inside my head was still bothering me, it seemed like the best current idea. I followed him towards the coffee shop, but we did see Marill and Azurill again. We overheard them talking to a drowzee, who seemed to know where the water float was.

  
  


"It's there?! ...Hrm, we had a wander there a couple of weeks ago, but we didn't go too far, because it's dangerous. Ooh, I'm not sure if we should go there..." Marill said, sounding nervous.

  
  


"I'll help." The drowzee said, sounding a lot older than them. "I'm capable at defending myself against the savages up on the mountain, so shall we go together?"

  
  


"Yes please"! The Azurill squeaked politely. "Oh, thank you so much mister!"

  
  


"By the way, just in case things go pear shaped, why don't you get some oran berries for the journey? They've got some on sale at The Kecleon Shop for only twenty poke." The Drowzee said to Marill. "Let's go Azurill – we'll let marill catch up."

  
  


"Hey there, good to see you helping them. Good luck on finding it!" Serge said politely

  
  


"It shouldn't be a problem sir. I mean, I was real upset when I lost my favourite toy at that age for many, many months – I don't want to see it happen to anyone else if I can help it. Besides, these 'water floats' run in azumaill families, so I'm sure it's more important than just an average toy." Drowzee said as he led the Azurill away, but just as he did so, he scraped past me.

  
  


"Whoops, sorry sir." He said and continued to walk away. I started to feel suddenly dizzy again, and felt that familiar ring inside my head. The world seemed to be pulled away from me once again as my vision fell to black – it was happening again. By body swayed a bit as a bright light flashed in front of me. Except this time, I could actually see instead of being surrounded by pitch blackness. What I saw was rather strange, since I seemed to be hovering above a small clearing on a mountainside. I gasped when I saw a drowzee and azurill talking to one another. The drowzee seemed to have cornered him, but upon closer inspection, there was no mistaking it – it was the same drowzee and azurill I just saw a minute ago. I then heard the Drowzee speak in a slightly nasty tone – this wasn't good.

  
  


"Look, you're just making it harder for both yourself and I. Now, if you don't want to get hurt, to exactly what I say, because let's face it – no one's coming to help you all the way up on Mount Bristle." I was perplexed. I could evidently see that Drowzee was threatening Azurill, but why was I seeing this? Was this some kind of vision I was getting? Or was my insanity intensifying?

  
  


"Floyd!" I heard Serge yell, as I snapped back into reality. "Look, I am getting really concerned here – you went into a strange trance again! Maybe you should visit Nurse Blissey, since it could be a medical condition you received or something."

  
  


"I saw Drowzee cornering Azurill, and threatened the poor child with violence if he didn't do as he was told…they were on Mount Bristle" I said truthfully to him, trying my best to recall the details. "I don't know what's happening to me." I said, shedding a tear to myself – my last days of sanity were surely coming to an end right now. Serge sighed and dragged me back to the guild building.

  
  


"Hey hey, Floyd, Serge! We were heading over to the Spinda coffee shop now, so dump your stuff off and join us!" Corphish told us as he and Bidoof walked past us. However, my interest was diverted by the message board on the right. It seemed to be filled with wanted posters, with details on where they were last sighted, the crimes they done, and the bounty for capture.

  
  


"These guys look like bastards – hope someone brings justice to these dangerous clowns." I said to Serge, when I got a very sudden surprise – the board suddenly flipped over.

  
  


"What…was that…" I asked Serge, but before he could think about it, it was swapped back again. "Hmm…the picture of the zangoose was gone…"

  
  


"Oh yes he has!" A girl's voice said from behind me, turning out to be Sunflora. "He was a dangerous criminal…that is, until I caught him this morning! I've been doing more criminal catching lately, under the recommendations of Wigglytuff himself – I'm getting good at this!" She said proudly.

  
  


"Great job, very well done – another bastard behind bars!" I said, congratulating her. "Good to see justice being brought to these wrongdoers – remember, a criminal who gets away with it will only see fit to cause more misery!"

  
  


"Err, is that...it is! Fucking Drowzee – the same one we saw in town fifteen minutes ago! Apparently committed of theft in Chaud Town three months ago and it was only suspected of the crime this very day!" I yelled loudly. I was absolutely astounded, but not particularly because of the hideous crimes, but because of what I saw, particularly during my second hallucination – I saw the pair of them on Mount Bristle. But how?! This was becoming too much too be a mere coincidence – did I get the ability of remote viewing when I became a pokemon?! Clearly the others don't have it, otherwise such posters and explorations wouldn't be necessary.

  
  


"Serge! I saw that happen in my hallucination when Drowzee bumped past me! Perhaps it wasn't a hallucination; perhaps it was an actual vision of the future, as unlikely as that sounded! We have to do something, we're leaving for Mount Bristle right now!" I said loudly, turning to him.

  
  


"Uh, sure!" Serge responded, not needing to be told twice, though he looked rather surprised at my sudden orders and attitude. We rushed out of the guild and used our map to find out where the near-by mountain was. It didn't take long to find it, taking less than an hour to get to the base of the hill, which looked a bit small to really qualify as a mountain. That being said, its foreboding, rocky shape told me that the mountain itself could be as nasty as the Drowzee, as it seemed to have little life on it at all.

  
  


"Truth be told, I'm not sure if I will be able to bring him to justice. He probably knows a thing or two about fighting after all, but it won't be for a lack of trying!" I said, as I initiated the climb Now this was something I could get behind more, but as our ascent started, it became clear that Serge and I had slightly different agendas – he was more interested in saving Azurill primarily, while I was more focused on Drowzee behind bars to stop the bastard from doing the same to any other poor child. Further up our climb, we noticed that this place was very devoid of plant life – just the occasional bristly shrub here and there. Other than that, it was rocky. so very, very rocky.

  
  


"'Barren' doesn't even begin to describe it..." I said, kicking a rock, and I watched roll down the mountainside. It was indeed a boring, grey looking place. The mountains in the Scottish Highlands were definitely more exciting and far less dull, thinking back to my trip to Ben Nevis up the snowcapped peak of the highest point in all of the British Isles. There was no path this time though, so we had to use our hands at points to ascend the gravelly outcroppings, but at the same time, I couldn't help but be distracted by the view of Treasure Town beneath us and I did wonder to myself – could I be climbing where no man has gone before? Sure, pokemon might have probably climbed it, and while I wasn't physically human at this point, I knew I was still human 'at heart', as much as I hated that phrase. All things considered, I would indeed be the first human on this mountain!

  
  


"We are trying to rescue Azurill, not taking a leisurely walk in the mountains." Serge told me as he led me further up, seeing that I got slightly distracted as I berated myself for letting my concentration slip from the task at hand.

  
  


"You sure you're ok Serge? I mean, you still looked pretty mangled from yesterday." I said, looking at his large cut and damaged fur.

  
  


"I guess – it's still really sore though, but we don't have time to take it easy, come on." We did see a few pokemon scuffle about, but they seemed rather timid somehow. That is, until we bumped into two very territorial staravia, who did not seem happy to see us at all.

  
  


"Er…Serge – these pair don't seem as timid, and they don't seem to like us at all!" I said, as they seemed to growl at us. It seemed like we entered its hunting territory. "Let's just go around them…" I said, but I as I started to walk away, they immediately flew towards us, with a blood-chilling screech.

  
  


"I think they're also spoiling for a fight! Get ready!" Serge said loudly. I didn't need to be told to get ready as I gazed up at them, being ready to react to their attacks. Unlike Serge, who was busy blowing searing jets of flames at them, I really didn't know how to attack them from the ground, and as a result, I just stood around like a useless lemon. I was locked in a stare-off with one of them, both of us inspecting each other's movements, not taking any drastic or sudden action. Unfortunately, the one that Serge was dealing with split off for him and suddenly flew right into me, jabbing its beak into my side.

  
  


"AARGH!" I yelled, holding my beak-wound tightly, holding the blood in, as I used he sharp head leaf to cut the staravia and chase it away. I taunted it by screaming insults nonsensically at the flying assailant, not even thinking it would understand, but it seemed to have got the message as it flew at me head on – what an idiot! I waited and dived out of the way at the last second as it crashed into a large rock behind me, as I took care of it by slicing it with my tail leaf, leaving a gash on it's wing to ensure it wouldn't fly after us any time soon.

  
  


"Took you a while!" Serge said, standing on top of the other staravia, looking proud of himself, as it was gasping in pain from it's burns.

  
  


"Yes, well done, blah blah blah, could you get me a bandage or something! I'm hurt here!" I said, trying to usher his gleaming pride away so that he'd help me out here. Even after he wrapped and tied cloth around the wound, it still hurt like a bitch.

  
  


"Thank Serge – I just hope it won't hold me back when trying to get Drowzee, because I don't think he's going to take us trying to capture him lying down. I really hope I can discover other fighting methods, because if I remember correctly, drowzees have some really funky abilities. Not that we'd be brain-dead enough to allow ourselves to by hypnotized, but...well, you get the basic idea."

  
  


We ascended further higher up the mountain, the breeze beginning to feel a wee bit chilly due to the altitude and exposure, and there were no trees to shelter us from the wind. We were near the top now, however, we couldn't be exactly sure Drowzee himself was at the top or not. The vision I had showed me he was on the top, but how could I be sure I could trust it? I mean, it seemed to bee too much to me a coincidence to not line up, but I somehow remained sceptical about the whole thing. Eventually, when we were almost at the top, we heard voices. And one of them I instantly recognized!

  
  


"Look, you're just making it harder for both yourself and I. Now, if you don't want to get hurt, to exactly what I say, because let's face it – no one's coming to help you all the way up on Mount Bristle." That was Drowzee alright, but I was utterly astounded – those were the _exact_ same words I had in my vision! Did I just get a vision of the future back there, and it's happening now?!

  
  


"Hey, Serge, there's something I ne…." I said, but Serge was already running up to encounter Drowzee. I heard that Azurill scream as I followed him to the top, where Drowzee was cornering Azurill menacingly. By all means Serge, just run in there without a plan!

  
  


"The jig's up Drowzee! I'd suggest you let the kid go, or else, as people often say, we'll do this the hard way! Don't worry Azurill, we'll get you home!" Serge said, and Drowzee looked very surprised to see us, but as much as I didn't like Serge announcing his presence, he was at the very least passionate about this mission, as was I.

  
  


"H…how did you find me so fast?!" He said, his eyes widened. "I just got here!"

  
  


"Let's just say I have connections in high places. Now, let Azurill go, please, or we will absolutely destroy you, you despicable, child-abducting waste of flesh! I'm looking forward to see you disappear behind bars for a good few years!" I said, the fiery passion for the first real chance of ensuring that justice is served without any worry of the powers that be punishing me unfairly for it!

  
  


"Now, look you two – in the past, I have eluded a total of six rescue teams, all of them of a fairly high rank, and I heard you only started a couple of days ago. Now, let's be reasonable – what chance do you have of brining me in?" He said, clearly cocky. Regardless, a lone Drowzee? Elude six high ranking rescue teams? Quite unlikely.

  
  


"Nice bluff, but we're not falling for it! If it means beating the shit out of you until your bowels are completely empty, we will do so, because let's face it – you deserve such violent treatment, and deep down, I think you know that too." I said loudly, briefly forgetting about any professional law enforcement protocols that this land may have, such as stating rights and all that jazz, not that I felt it was necessary. I was hoping my forceful and boisterous speech would inspire Serge for a good ass-kicking, and it seemed to be working.

  
  


"Absolutely!" Serge said, standing his ground, and looked ready to battle. Drowzee sighed in frustration, shaking his head slightly.

  
  


"I guess it'll be the hard way then!" Drowzee said, and we stared down for almost a minute, none of us making any advances or retreats.

  
  


"Ok, flank him to the side and incinerate him, and I'll do the attacking to draw his immediate attention." I muttered to Serge, quiet enough so Drowzee wouldn't hear. The stand-off had to end somewhere, as Drowzee still has Azurill trapped, and he would notice Serge's flanking soon. But how to attack from a range? Could I do that? Again, I had to delve into my instincts as Drowzee still decided to merely stand his ground, and after noticing something else about my two leaves I didn't notice before, I had a great idea.

  
  


I knew I was against a psychic opponent, and I was pretty certain he would have many tricks up his sleeve, but it was worth a shot. I spun violently around once, swinging my tail with full force right in his direction, and what I hoped would have happened, happened. Several sharp leaves seemed to eject from my tail like small shurikens, flying swiftly in a straight line towards Drowzee. I smiled, seeing that I was on target, but I knew it wouldn't be that simple, as I saw my efforts being utterly wasted with Drowzee just blocking it with some kind of strange psychic power.

  
  


"Great…" I said, and I saw him put his palm out towards me, and I frowned a little, and I readied myself for some kind of psychokinetic attack, and I readied myself to dodge it, but the attack never came. What did come, however, was an agonizing, searing headache, which felt like one thousand needles being thrust right inside my brain which all occurred extremely suddenly.

  
  


"AAARRGGHH!" I yelled in intense pain as I dropped to my knees, clutching my head tightly – it was by far the worst headache I had ever received. It was so painful, it nigh on blinded me in sheer pain, and my vision became very blurry. My thoughts were rather scrambled up as well, however, in spite of all of this, I could see that my flanking strategy worked. Through a blurred veil from the inside of my eyes, I could see Serge catch Drowzee off guard with an intense stream of fire, followed by a forceful tackle, which knocked him hard against the ground. I heard him yell in pain, as he struggled to get to his feet.

  
  


"Don't worry Floyd, I think I've gotten this down!" Serge said, seeing I was currently in no state to carry on battling until I got over the mind assault. I continued to yell in pain, and even though I felt the pain slowly start to subside, it was sytill pinning me in agony. I saw Serge skilfully dodge a strange beam of psychic energy and rush in to try and slam right into his gut – it seems like Serge outclassed Drowzee in combat, much like he outclassed me. However, I was very wrong to count Drowzee out. I saw Serge charge into another tackle, trying to wind him, but he was ready this time, and completely blocked the attack with what seemed like a wall of light.

  
  


Serge seemed dazed as if he just hit his head against a brick wall, and Drowzee punched Serge in the face to knock him back and daze him, almost causing Serge to fall over. The pain was starting to go a little bit, and the environment was now being quite still, rather than the waviness when my mind got assaulted by confusion. I slowly got to my feet, and swayed a bit, and kept my eyes on Drowzee.

  
  


"I told you – you should have left while you had the chance!" The Drowzee said and blasted Serge with a focused beam of energy, sending Serge reeling across the ground, and not only did he looked dazed and disorientated, the harsh ground left quite a few grazes on Serge. The Drowzee exhaled, seeming tired after using all that power, and turned away from us and to the Azurill.

  
  


"Now…where were we, ah yes, you will squeeze through that hole and retrieve that sack of jewels now!" Drowzee ordered to the frightened Azurill, who was currently backing against a very large rock. "I don't care if they belong to some staraptor or not, get them for me now!" I knew I wasn't out yet, and everything seemed clear now. While my head was still throbbing, I could see that Drowzee was still pretty badly injured, having been burnt and bashed by Serge.

  
  


I slowly started walking up to them both from behind; each step feeling like someone opened up my head and gave my brain a good punch, not to mention that the wound I received from that staravia was still potent and painful, and I could still feel myself bleeding slightly. I made very little sound as I got quite close to them. Trying to attack at range was too risky – I could hit Azurill by mistake, and I'd never want to bring pain to a child, even by accident. I clenched my hands together as a particularly large headache pain spike surged right through my brain; however, this turned out to be a good thing. Me hands felt like they got pins and needles suddenly, so I had a good look at them. For some reason they were glowing with a sickly green green. Instinct seemed to take over once before as I lunged right at Drowzee from behind.

  
  


"I haven't got all day! Do it now, or else I will guarantee you, you will suffer more pain th…what?!" Drowzee yelled as I jumped on his back grabbing his forehead with one of my glowing hands, and firmly holding both hands behind with my other. He was bigger than me, so I expected him through his wild struggling to break free with ease. He was just about to, but he seemed to tire out oddly quickly; but, actually, was it me that was getting stronger? I was starting to feel a lot healthier as I held him still with my hands, glowing green, but not too brightly.

  
  


"Get off! Gah…get…off…" Drowzee said, still trying to shake me off. Oddly enough, he seemed to be weakening, and was somehow getting very exhausted, and within very little time, it wasn't even hard to keep him still. I could sense him trying to use psychic abilities to get me to let go, but he was not doing a good job of it at all. I saw Serge slowly get to his feet, covered in nasty grazes, and has a couple of deep cuts on his side, which were bleeding slowly. He seemed to be quite angry, and his back erupted with flames, more intensely than I have seen before. It was so intense, that the flames even seemed to encircle him completely. Without warning, he suddenly rushed forward, almost completely covered in fire.

  
  


"Get away!" He yelled at me. I got the hint, and pushed the exhausted Drowzee towards the charging fireball and dived out of the way as Serge slammed into Drowzee with great fiery force. He was scorched and slammed, and was knocked back a great distance – there was no chance he'd be getting up from that attack any time soon! Azurill came running towards us, crying in fear, and I was sure he was trying to give Serge a hug for his own comfort, which proved to be difficult without arms.

  
  


"We did it Serge! Now, let's just arrest this cunt and bring him back to the village!" I yelled triumphantly, not paying much attention around saying arguably the most offensive word ever around a minor. We started bringing Drowzee down the mountain, who was in no position to resist. Serge seemed very impressed with himself, not to mention surprised, and kept comforting Azurill.

  
  


"This will only take an hour – you're safe with us, we promise!" Serge stroked his head as Azurill walked down between Serge and I, with me in the front pretty much pushing Drowzee down the mountain, giving little regard to his safety. Not only did bringing this criminal to justice feel righteous, it was also great stress relief to distract me from my pokemon predicament!

  
  


"I had no idea I could do that! Perhaps being with you, Floyd, is helping me achieve my true potential, as well as yours!" Serge said, evidently planning ahead for even greater endeavours with his excited grin telling me everything I needed to know.

  
  


"That's funny..." I said, looking at myself. I didn't feel too injured, in fact, I didn't seem to be sore at all! Even the stab wound from earlier was mostly gone, peeking underneath the bandage, which was now coloured faintly red with my blood. "How come I'm not...well...mangled?" Serge took a look at me curiously, seeing the wound was barely there.

  
  


"I think it's something some pokemon can do. I think you might have absorbed some of his energy and life-force to exhaust him and transfer that energy to yourself." Serge said after he finished his quick inspection. I swore one of my friends back home called Rob mentioned this, and I decided to recall what he said as best as he could. In Canada, he was ranked among the top two hundred and fifty trainers, and really knew his stuff. Too bad I never liked the idea of pokemon training, and stayed clear of that questionable garbage. It's definitely not the sort of thing to mention to Serge either – I wouldn't blame him if he compared it to slavery!

  
  


"You see, Serge, pokemon also exist in my world, but they haven't become civilized yet, and people document their fighting abilities and stuff. I'm sure that among trainers that the absorbing ability was called...well...absorb. Funny that, hehe. Regardless, I only know bits and pieces as I was actually rather scared of the pokemon. Tried to spend as little time with them as possible...hey, I'm just being honest with you – sigh of respect and stuff!" I said, hoping I didn't needlessly offend him.

  
  


"Will you be ok, buddy?" I said to Serge, inspecting his wounds. There were many new cuts, bruises and grazes, but none of them looked like they needed any treatment. I really couldn't help but feel concerned for him, since he couldn't make rapid recoveries like I could.

  
  


"I'll be fine, and I'll be fighting fit by tomorrow." Serge insisted, and we soon arrived back in Treasure Town. Azurill ran immediately to Marill as soon as he saw her, crying and blubbering nonsensically.

  
  


"Oh, thank you, thank you, THANK you!" Marill said, also looking shaken up by the whole thing. "You saved him, and so quick! If you were any slower then he might...no, it didn't happen, we needn't worry about it. I really don't know how to thank you! I promise, we'll see you again and make it up to you one way or another." Azurill let out a choked thank you before running off with Marill before we even had the chance to say anything back to them. Aw well, time to deal with the issue at hand – Drowzee.

  
  


"Your tracking skills must be incredible!" Officer Magnezone said as we brought the badly beaten up Drowzee into his office, as he looked up from his paperwork, which he seemed to be doing by controlling the electricity around him to move objects or something crazy like that. "Less than four hours it took you after we confirmed that he was the culprit of several previous crimes – most impressive, but might I add that you may have been too brutal with this criminal by the looks of things."

  
  


"Sorry, I was angry at him and his crimes, and considering he said that he had a track record of escaping, I wanted to make sure I could drag him to town without incident." I responded.

  
  


"Well, it was according to records your first time, so I guess it's ok, just remember next time, sirs, to use a little restraint." The officer said, pushing Drowzee into a primitive looking holding cell, where he looked more sad than angry that he now found himself behind bars. Good, let that misery teach the bastard a lesson. "Here is the payment for the successful capture of Drowzee, but I expect a lot of that will go to the guild." He said, handing us over the money – payment was obviously good, but crime fighting was under heavy tax from the guild as well?! I guess I didn't know any real equivalent of law enforcement incorporated back home, so I didn't know exactly how to get angry at this.

  
  


"And we only get to keep thirty five percent of this as well?! Us explorers risking our lives for a pittance..." I complained bitterly.

  
  


"I don't make the rules, but keep it between us – your guildmaster should really be paying you a lot more. He is by far the wealthiest in this town, twice as rich as Smeargle, the artist and museum owner. It's very helpful for you to catch criminals like this – it's gone out of fashion in the guild where teaching about it is fairly minimal. A crime wave is brewing as a result, and I don't like it." Magnezone told us, who seemed very trusting of me, which was a nice change from some of the other citizens.

  
  


"I think it's a great idea..." I said before trailing of. Doing your part to ensure justice was the Dialgan way, to help ensure no crime goes unpunished. However, this wasn't leading me any closer to home, which came on my mind again after the tension had calmed after leaving to head back to the guild for dinner. Bitterness filled me again before I went on yet another rant.

  
  


"Too bad Chatot is going to be like…" I said and cleared my throat, and said, with a rather accurate impression of Chatot. "We here at the Wigglytuff Guild openly rip off trainees by taking sixty-five percent of what they earn! Here, you can keep one thousand, five hundred will go towards keeping you, and the rest will go to Wigglytuff and I to get totally smashed on acid!" I said, imitating Chatot, which made Serge chuckle before he asked me why someone would want to 'smash' themselves into corrosive liquid.

  
  


"Well, I guess a thousand poke is still quite a bit, and it's not like we have to spend any of it on food or anything." Serge said as we walked up the stairs to the guild. "By the way, we now have a bit of time, so tell me about this supposed 'future vision' that you tried to explain to me just as we saw Drowzee." I explained the vision to him in detail, emphasising the exact same scream pitch and the exact same words uttered by Drowzee, yet Serge didn't quite seem convinced.

  
  


"…And you're being entirely truthful?! Was you're father a xatu or something? They can get visions of the future, or so they claim – their visions have been proven wrong before. Can most humans see into the future?" He said to me, and I sighed again, and this was ignoring the biological impossibilities of what he said.

  
  


"Serge, I'm telling you – I am…well, was a human. Both my parents were human too, as was everyone in my family. I understand why you find it hard to believe, but it's the truth!" Although, humans don't get visions or divinations like that either…." I said, thinking for a while before trailing off to a mere mutter, only audible to myself. "How or why did I just get a vision of the future…?" This was becoming more baffling by the second – I got turned into a pokemon, and went into some world where pokemon were civilized, and now I had a vision of the future?! What added up about this? Nothing I could conceivably get a leash on! This was beyond a wild goose chase now!

  
  


"Well, there is something about you that is certainly different…ugh, ok, I admit it – I honestly believe that you were a human! You're rabidly insisting it, and from what you've described, it seems too consistent to be a fantasy that you made up yourself, or insanity for that matter." Serge said. "Still…humans are heard of here, just never seen. In these parts, they are creatures of legend." This immediately got my interests.

  
  


"Tell me more! I'm very interested to see what this world thinks of the mighty human race!" I said, smiling. Perhaps I could dig a few clues from these legends.

  
  


"Sorry Floyd, I barely look into it, but I'm sure someone in the guild is interested in such legends. I actually overheard that Chatot was quite avid on the legend of the humans. You could probably speak to him about it, I'm sure, in spite of his grumpiness, he'd actually be happy to talk about it." Serge told me. It was something to go on, but I really didn't want to speak to Chatot if I could possibly avoid it, but I guess the worst he'll do is give me vicious words.

  
  


We approached the Wigglytuff guild, and we were cheered by a few guild members, which forced a smile on my face. Was I getting used to this? No. Was it growing on me? Definitely not, but I now no longer felt unwanted at all. Matter of fact, they seemed to think quite highly of me and Serge for the most part. I decided to just take this in stride and feel happy about the whole thing. In bleak situations, I knew it was always important to enjoy the little things, and when really busy, I didn't even think about home much, since it was too hard to do in dangerous situations. We climbed down the ladder into the lower quarters of the Wigglytuff guild, where we were immediately greeted by Chatot, clapping his wings.

  
  


"I must admit – I honestly didn't think it was even feasible for you two to apprehend Drowzee, considering you've only been a team for a few days, but you somehow done it!" He said to us, looking quite happy for a change. "Well, I think you know what's to happen next" He said – I knew fine well what he meant, but to remain on his good side, I handed over the sack money, not being successful in looking irritated.

  
  


"Wonderful! He's your cut..." He said and handed our cut back to us, giving me a nasty look, my attitude and outright species seeming to piss him off. "...But with an attitude like that really tells me it was all down to your exploration partner, extreme luck, or your greed for money. I somehow bet it's all three."

  
  


"That's rich – thirty-five percent is fucking awful for life endangering work!" I complained. Chatot both seemed pissed at my back-chat, but then let on a slightly cruel smile.

  
  


"You, Snivy – you are treading on thin ice. Keep that up, and I'll be sure to convince the guildmaster to kick you out of here!"

  
  


"It's 'Floyd'..." I said, walking off, making Chatot seemed more confused than infuriated – perhaps flaunting my name instead of my species name was considered abnormally open here.

  
  


"Well, me and you seem to be getting the hang of this oddly quickly." I said, thinking about what happened today. "Well, I'm going to ask Chatot about future visions and the humans when he comes out, I'll see you in the mess hall in half an hour buddy."

  
  


"A'right, see you there Floyd." Serge said and walked off. It was the first time I actually got a good look and Serge. His fur seemed a duller shade of green and yellow compared to most cyndaquils, and he almost exclusively walked on two legs. I'm sure it was a culture thing, and besides, it's not like humans had the same skin colour – there were some who were just about chalk white, and some as black as the night, so I could hardly be surprised. Unlike others of his kind, he seemed to always have his eyes wide open, but I'm sure it wasn't purely unique to Serge. Chatot suddenly jumped out of Wigglytuff's quarters, and turned to look at me.

  
  


"That wasn't a threat I gave you, it was a promise. Keep that in mind." He warned me, but I decided to muster up some courage and risk walking on thinner ice.

  
  


"I heard you were interested in the legend of the humans." He suddenly turned round, looking curious more than anything else. Perhaps he could be open for conversation in a good mood, not that I'd be interested in bringing up anything else other than humans with him.

  
  


"Y…you're also interested in the legends? I thought I was the only one in the guild. I'm fascinated by them, and before I became the vice leader of the guild, I went exploring with like-minded people. They say that the humans were the ones to elevate us from our animalistic roots into glorious civilized ways." Chatot said to us, clearly passionate about it. I however, was amazed – was this the reason why pokemon in this world were civilized?

  
  


"They also say that they gave us a universal communications system, which me and you are speaking to right now. Most people dub this as nonsense, but on our expeditions before it dismantled due to our leader dying in a tragic accident, revealed to us a hidden chest filled with documents. When we brought this back, we revealed the ancient writing, and we found out it dated to before the first known pokemon civilization. Most just shrug this off as an even older civilization, but, there was a picture of a few unknown creatures. I have said pictures, I will show you them." He said, and I followed him to his room.

  
  


What he said was fascinating – perhaps I wasn't the only human to come to this world! This seemed more like vague archaeology instead of legends to me, and I was already making plans to visit the site of the discovery. Clearly, if the answers to the mystery of my arrival here were anywhere, they would be there.

  
  


"Here." He said, and showed me. Standing tall and proud, they were humans alright. They seemed to be from the Victorian age, considering the way they dressed, except for one of them who looked like they crawled out of the Amazon. But I could understand why some pokemon didn't see it as valid proof. It wasn't a photo, it was a painting, so it must have been dubbed as an illusion or a sham by many.

  
  


"Unfortunately, most of them are blind to these 'legends.' I believe that these are the humans, as said in one of the documents that one of my friends had, who also died in the cave in. It described the pokemon's feelings on leaving the usual animalistic ways, and into the new, civilized ways. I think this all shows that the humans must have come from another world and brought civilization to us. However, some pokemon here have never heard of them, and those that do mostly don't believe they even existed. I suppose you think I'm talking a load of crap as well." Chatot said, scowling slightly, but I decided to turn his frown upside down with an encouraging response.

  
  


"Oh, no, I believe that humans exist. Fully and without any doubt." I said, which seemed to make Chatot happier. "Say, where did you find these documents?"

  
  


"The site of the first pokemon civilization, but they were cave dwellers, and that was many years ago. I think it's also caved in, there's no way on earth that I, or anyone else can ever get back there unless they're expert diggers. Even then, I suspect any other traces there would have been destroyed by the cave in. It's really too bad – I would have proposed to Wigglytuff that we should have a guild expedition there." Chatot continued to explain everything he saw at the discovery, holding my interest in a choke-hold. I was very fascinated by all the theories, but there something he said that baffled me.

  
  


"One of my fellow explorers, a feraligator, actually doesn't believe that they are pokemon, but something else entirely, but I very much doubt that. As mythical as they seemed, I doubt they were not too different from pokemon on the whole, since we are as varied as they come, and they seem to have a lot in common. Well, I'm not too sure of that, it's not like I've seen humans myself, but I wouldn't go classifying them outside of being pokemon." He said as I coughed – did he seriously suggest that humans were also pokemon?! I found it hard not to laugh, but on the other hand, it's not like I could say they weren't for sure. Exactly what qualified as being pokemon or not was beyond my understanding. There was also something odd I thought of – indeed, the pokemon of this world must have seen human beings at one point in order to make a painting of them. However they must have saw them in their human forms, whereas I was turned into a snivy. Something must have happened to me as I went over between the worlds that didn't happen to them. I believed in Chatot's theories – it would probably explain why they could speak good English, and I could speak to them as I would speak to my fellow English speaking human.

  
  


"Say, Chatot, do you know how they came here, or if they got back to their own world or not?" I asked him.

  
  


"No one knows the answer to either question." Chatot said to me. "All that was ever suggested in the documents, is how they helped pokemon reach civilized height. Nothing about their origin, or what happened after they encountered the pokemon of this world." I sighed. I guess I was still no closer to figuring out how to get home after all, and I was only bumping into false hope and setbacks everywhere, and it was starting to get to me. I was wondering how hard it would become to the 'enjoy the little things' policy that I was forcing myself to keep to in the future, if no discovery could be made.

  
  


"I take it nothing about them getting visions of the future were mentioned either, or nothing about humans turning into other species of pokemon." I asked, and saw Chatot shake his head, and give me a puzzling look.

  
  


"I don't know why you are asking about getting visions of the future. Only xatus can supposedly do it, and I believe it's all a scam. A lot of xatus I have encountered have made mountains of cash out of their supposed future-telling abilities, and humans becoming other species is outright unheard of, nor were there any documents hinting at that." Chatot said. "Take my advice Floyd – don't go spending money on their 'divinations.'" This didn't help me either – like those humans over a hundred years ago, I must have went from the human world into the pokemon world – but how did I get turned into a pokemon myself, and how did I get two visions of the future?

  
  


"I suspect dinner will be ready any soon. I can't believe I'm saying this to you, but I enjoyed our little chat." Chatot said, and I nodded.

  
  


"As I have enjoyed talking to you. If you ever find out anything more, or get any other possible theories, be sure to share them with me – I'd be very happy to know more about the humans." I said to him. As I walked away, I could hear him mutter to himself 'how odd – he seems so fascinated in them – but why? Out of all the pokemon I have met, he seems to be the most strange and eccentric one I've ever come across.' I didn't blame him really. Trying to settle in a new culture with a different body was a mighty challenge. I heard a familiar chiming sound, signifying that Chimeco has finished making dinner, which was delicious as usual. I was greeted by Corphish again outside of the mess hall after I had finished.

  
  


"It was too bad you couldn't join us in the Spinda Coffee Shop today, but I'll be spooned! You and Serge – taking down Drowzee on a whim like that? Fantastic stuff man! Well, I'll just do an easy assignment with Bidoof tomorrow so we can finish quickly – we'll be in the café until dinner time if you want to join us." Corphish said, being very friendly and polite as usual.

  
  


"Indeed." I said, not thinking I'd be home by tomorrow.

  
  


"I'll come as well. I was actually looking forward to it as well, but duty called." Serge said as I nodded at them, putting the leaf behind my head, as it flopped over and obstructed my vision, much like my hair occasionally done when it was windy outside, flying all over the place, and somehow gravitating towards my mouth. Just as Serge was heading to his room, I heard Chatot speak to me yet again, and I begun to wonder if me being a snivy was that much of a thing for him. To think if he saw me as a human – imagine his fixation then!

  
  


"Hrm…I really don't know who you are at all really." Chatot said, sounding less friendly and more like his usual self, which was a shame, since he seemed almost nice before. "Even compared to the other snivy immigrants that have been sighted, you seem very different from them, and other pokemon on the whole. My sources tell me that you had a couple of dizzy spells while in Treasure Town where Bidoof was showing you around, and that you had no idea what was causing them. Describe them to me." This made me feel uneasy. I wasn't sure if telling Chatot I had a vision of the future was a good idea, and I really didn't want him thinking I was a loony.

  
  


"It…everything just kinda went blank for a moment, and I just completely spaced out." I said, keeping to the truth, though I didn't mention the vision. I would have liked to tell him to mind his own business, but as much as I didn't like him, getting on his wrong side wasn't a wise idea.

  
  


"Any headaches during the process?"

  
  


"Nope." I responded. "Just dizziness."

  
  


"Never heard of anyone having a dizzy blackout without a headache before." He said, looking right into my eyes. "Anyway, I will keep an eye on Team Conviction, and especially you. Even for a foreigner, you seem particularly unusual, as if you don't even come from this world. I'm pretty sure you have something to hide, and if you do, I will find out soon. That is all." He said, finally returning to his quarters and staying there.

  
  


"Well aren't you the rising star now..." Loudred said, purposefully bumping into me as he walked to his own room. "Ship your earnings home and ruining it for the rest of us – I'm already ahead of you, Snivy."

  
  


"And I guess you're not a rising star – it's really too bad man!" I said, sniggering as I didn't take Loudred's grumbling seriously – he could at least be more professional about his discrimination like Chatot.

  
  


"Hey Floyd." He said to me as I lied down in my own 'bed.' He picked what seemed to be a magazine or newspaper and started reading it, and looking at the cover it was – you guessed it – Exploration Weekly. Well, I guess completely unoriginal names like that can still fly in such a young civilization.

  
  


"Apparently, some idiot claims he found an artifact which he dubbed a 'Time Gear.' He refused to take it back with him since it was apparently one of those things that should be left alone. He seemed so crazy after the whole thing that his mental health is severely damaged, and has now gone completely insane." Serge explained to me, looking me with the occasional sideways glance.

  
  


"Time gears? What in the world are they?"

  
  


"No idea, and everyone, including myself thinks he's full of it – it's not uncommon for people to outright lie about their discoveries to try and maintain glory. There's another one here actually." He said and signalled me over. "A poliwrath claimed something just as bogus. He said that he swam deep into the ocean and found Kyogre himself – as in actually found the mythological creature.

  
  


"Hah, my band was named after said creature – The Kyogre Is Dead." My friendly chuckle turned into a frown as soon as Serge gave me a look to say 'what's a band?' Hopeless... "You don't even know what a band is? Music? None of that?"

  
  


"Not at all – some human thing I presume?" This just made me miss home even more. I could probably hold in the misery of being away for a while by listening to music from other worlds, but without it, this civilization now seemed a bit dead. No word of Dialga, no music...what would my next discovery about this place going to be?!

  
  


"Excuse me for a wee moment, I'm going to pray to my lord for a moment. Don't disturb me, got it?" Again, Serge just looked really confused, which to be honest, I wasn't surprised at. I didn't have my small altar that I had in my bedroom, so I decided to make use of the window, since it was the best thing I could use. Normally, I'd be on my way to the largest Dialgan temple to hear my dad's service – I bet he'd be concerned that I didn't show up as well. I'm sure it was near enough to midnight, and the new week was about to begin.

  
  


"Dialga, oh righteous one, I hope you can forgive me for not being able to attend church, and that this personal prayer to you will be sufficient. I want to thank you for keeping time flowing on, and not abandoning us to a dead eternity. We honour you at this time to celebrate the start of a new week that you have provided for all living things, and we worship you for this. I will continue to uphold and carry out your moral guidance wherever I go, and seek to bring others to your divine ways, in whatever way I can. Oh, and if there is a way home...well, I'd love nothing more than to see it. Gracious apologies if this is inadequate for you." I said and lifted my head again, and noticed Serge was giving me a very odd look.

  
  


"…What was that all about Floyd?!" Serge said, obviously having no concept of prayer either.

  
  


"I was praying to Dialga." I said to him, grinding my teeth a bit in frustration. "Thanking for him for keeping time flowing, so without him, we'd be frozen in time, so I would start thanking him this instant if I were you." I said and I sighed to myself. I clearly looked like a religious zealot to Serge, something my dad was frequently panned for, but I respect him for working very hard to uphold our noble faith.

  
  


"Well, I'm sure he'd like you for saving Azurill if he somehow could possibly know that you did such a thing. Anyway, go get some sleep – you'll thank me for it." He said, and rested his head and very quickly dozed off, yet as I tried to drift off to sleep, my mind wandered in other directions, more specifically towards the gods themselves.

  
  


Where was this place? I doubted it was Earth. Perhaps it was an alien planet of some kind from across the cosmos itself. And yet I felt that there was a more troubling theory – the Giratina cultists often stated and emphasised that the pokemon originated from a completely different dimension in the fabrics of reality itself! I really hated the idea and possibility that I might have fell through to another plane of existence altogether, and quickly drove it out of my mind, but the chilling thought that remained during my sleep was this – maybe the Giratinists were right.

 


	4. Limelight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Serge and Floyd make a big leap in their new careers, although Floyd isn't nearly as enthusiastic.

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

  
  


Chapter 4: Limelight

  
  


  
  


It has been an entire week since I wound up in this unsettling, dangerous excuse for a world. I mean, there's no music or any other human creature comforts whatsoever, and I still feel like a complete and utter stranger here. Chatot and Loudred have been very swift in making it to my bad books, though at least Chatot can bring up decent conversations, which prevents him from being purely a total obstacle and pain. The almost military-like approach to the guilds rules and jobs were not my cup of tea at all, but I really had no choice in the matter. How about being in the body of a snivy? Granted, it's preferable to many pokemon, but compared to being a human? No contest. To make matters worse, I was no closer to finding out how this all happened to me, and I have suffered being here for a week – what did I do to deserve all this crap?

  
  


Pretty much the only good thing was some of the nicer guild members, and in particular Serge. I actually feel very grateful to have him as a friend at this through time, and without him, I would have been totally and completely lost in this world. He was there for me, and often made me feel like I wasn't all alone in this world. Ok, so he hadn't gone through what I went through, but he was actually very supportive. These thoughts raced around my head as I slept. Each night I prayed that I would wake up in my real bed back home, but each early morning, the dream was shattered by Loudred yelling at the top of his voice to get me up. I was to sleepy to give an abusive retort back this time, as I felt Serge haul me to my feet from behind.

  
  


"Did you sleep at all tonight?" Serge asked. "You never seemed like a morning person, but this is even worse than normal."

  
  


"A bleedin' cold wind was blowing through that window. Seems like you were more sheltered towards it, so do you mind if we swap beds? You'd think they'd have the courtesy to put at least a single layer of glass over it." I complained in my sleep-deprived state.

  
  


"Well, we should get through for the morning words of encouragement." Serge said, and sighed slightly – not even he seemed to enthusiastic about them these days.

  
  


"Smiles go for miles. Yay." I said, putting on a very forced and fake smile as I said as I walked with Serge to the main hall.

  
  


"SMILES GO FOR MILES!" Everyone yelled, aside from myself since I was unable to keep up my cheerful facade.

  
  


"Smiles go for just over fifty yards." I muttered under my breath. Chatot seemed to notice, and shot me an extremely brief, but a look that said 'I heard that!' The group was dismissed, but we were approached by Chatot.

  
  


"Team Conviction, I have a specific assignment for you, by the orders of the guildmaster himself. I must say, in spite of your somewhat lack of spine, Serge, and your attitude, Floyd, you have technically had an exceptional first week at the guild, in his words." He hopped quickly over to the map and pointed at it. "You will be sent to explore by the waterfall several miles to the north east. We believe that it hasn't been explored adequately, and that's where you two come in."

  
  


"Wow, I think we could be exploring uncharted territory!" Serge said with excitement. I thought it was pretty cool, but rather trivial, but then again, there was just a small chance that my way home could be around this waterfall. It was worth a look I guess, and I didn't want to annoy my employers too much.

  
  


"Well, it's right there – go out there and report your findings, dismissed!" Chatot said very quickly and walked off. Evidently, he didn't see much in us, though Wigglytuff must have.

  
  


"That...was brief. So we just go to this waterfall and investigate it I guess?" I said and shrugged. "I assume it can't be more dangerous or painful than receiving mind splitting attacks from Drowzee."

  
  


We headed back into treasure town, and back to the Kecleon shop. There was something annoying how they would avidly convince us to spend big whacks at their store, and have utterly no shame whatsoever in doing so. They were both so pushy, and seemed to speak in unison half the time. 'Welcome to our shop' 'Buy nine, get one free' 'This oran is simply fabulous, and heals all your wounds within five minutes of consumption', the list goes on.

  
  


"How about two Oran berries, two heal seeds, oh, and some basic food and water supplies." I said to them, and bought them quickly before they would continue their attempts to get us to buy everything that we can afford until we end up penniless.

  
  


We started heading off to this said waterfall fairly quickly. Serge wanted to spend as long as possible there to make sure he'd have enough time to search everything about it. Once again, the bright sun was clearly being picked up by both my leaves, and started to force me to be happy and a bit jumpy.

  
  


"Again, Floyd; you didn't seem that excited before, but you seem a lot happier about it now. I'm liking this new attitude of yours!" Serge said, looking nearly as happy as I was.

  
  


"Clearly, you still need to learn about photosynthesis. I'm getting so much energy from the sun, it's like I've drank five espressos in a row." I said, my smile being genuine, and yet, induced by the suns energy, but it was also evident that Serge had no idea what an espresso was. I guess the coffee shop must be super bland then. I should really spend as much time in the sun as possible – if it forces me to be energetic and happy, then I'd say it's probably a good thing for my mental state.

  
  


"I think that's the waterfall way ahead there." He said, pointing in the distance. It sure looked like it from where I was standing, though it was way too far away to make out any details. After about five minutes we eventually arrived there, climbing across the rocks to both see and hear the roar of the cascading water.

  
  


"So where do you think we should start looking buddy?" I yelled. the roar of the cascading water was very loud, so I had to yell in order to give Serge a chance to hear me. "It's a bigger waterfall than I thought it would be; any idea where we should start looking, because I can't see any suspicious stuff from here!"

  
  


"I'll have a look at the left side!" Serge yelled back to me, being sure to make himself heard clearly over all the noise. I looked up the waterfall – everything seemed rather perfectly formed here. The water seemed to roll gently over the side, and yet it was very violent by the time it reached the river below, proving that the gravity here was pretty much identical to that on Earth. The rock formations were almost symmetrical on either side of the rushing waterfall, making it rather pleasant to look at. I began to look round the right side of the waterfall – there didn't look like there was anything, but as I made my way back, there must have been some surge of water going over the waterfall, because I ended up getting splashed a lot suddenly.

  
  


"Blugh!" I said as I was hit by the cold water. I sighed and made my way back to the initial meeting point where Serge was.

  
  


"No luck from where I was Floyd." Serge said, looking a little bit disappointed.

  
  


"Me neither, I guess we co..." And then, that's when it happened – the dizziness came back again. My vision pulsated a pale red occasionally, and a soft ringing chimed in my ear from time to time. I heard Serge's voice become distance once more as my vision faded to black, and saw the streak of white light once more, and then…

  
  


I could see the waterfall again, except we weren't there. All I could see is some pokemon inspecting it with quick and erratic motions, as if it was searching for something, Upon closer inspection, I could see that it was non other than Guildmaster Wigglytuff, and he seemed to be inspecting the waterfall before suddenly ran full speed towards the falling waters and dived recklessly right through the waterfall. I didn't see Wigglytuff fall down the waters, and just as I was trying to figure out what was going on…I was back in the real world.

  
  


"…Zoned out again…" Serge said. "You sure it's healthy for pokemon to zone out that often?"

  
  


"Serge…I just had another vision." I said, and described in detail in what I saw. "I'm pretty sure the fucker who dived into the waterfall was Wigglytuff, I'd be surprised if I was mistaken."

  
  


"Another vision?! Now, I don't know snivys well, never mind humans...I take it these visions aren't found among humans?" Serge said, and I shook my head rather slowly. Not even in any religious text, even those outside The Righteous Book of Dialga mentioned about humans getting visions of the future, or at least to my knowledge, nor did they mention anything about humans turning into pokemon.

  
  


"Serge…think we should do the same and dive through this waterfall?" I asked him. It was a stupid and dangerous idea, and yet, there was a thought at the back of my head telling me it was what we should do. I was fully aware that Wigglytuff was bigger and sturdier than us, and would likely fare better after being battered by the cascading waters, but for some reason, I knew it was what me and Serge should do. "I mean…following my vision lead to our successful capture of Drowzee, I reckon that Wigglytuff was verifying our discovery, so it would lead me to believe that we should charge at full speed and dive through the waterfall." Serge looked a bit uncertain at first, and then smiled.

  
  


“Y'know what, I trust your judgement here. Besides, discovering a hidden cave would be a great event, and we will truly be exploring unknown places. You've been right before, so I think you'll be right this time." Serge replied, but this put me in an awkward situation. What if I was wrong? I'd end up not only causing me severe injury, but him as well. We might even die for all we know, and I would be responsible for that. We obviously must have survived ok for Wigglytuff to investigate anyway, and going into this half heartedly would definitely get us smashed.

  
  


"Well then, if this is our decision, then we need to go as fast as possible through it. If we choke at the end and slow down, we'll be bartered by the waterfall whether there's a cave or not." I gulped in fear, as it was still a terrifying prospect. “Ready Serge?”

  
  


"No point in standing around…three…two…one…" Serge counted down, and I took in a deep breath, staring dead at the exact place I was going to dive.

  
  


"YEAAAAARRGGGHHHHH!" I yelled, sounding somewhat like a battle cry as I charged head down towards the falling torrents. I didn't have time to think of what could go wrong, all I was thinking was charging as fast as possible through out the entire mad dash. I noticed Serge was just a wee bit behind, but I couldn't afford to turn my head. I then knew it was time – I pushed off the ground and leapt through the waterfall, praying not to crash into solid rock. The water pounded my body, which was it painful to say the least, but it was over in half a second, and then I felt myself land on a stony floor. I heard Serge land a second after me, and I slowly opened my eyes – there was no mistaking it – there was a cave behind the waterfall after all!

  
  


"Ugh…" I said, pushing myself to stand on my own two legs. "Well, Serge, I was right again!" I said, smiling broadly – the minor bruising from the waterfall felt insignificant compared to the sheer satisfaction of finding a completely undiscovered place. Indeed, I felt as though I was leaving quite a mark on this world.

  
  


"Well well well Floyd, you've done it again!" Serge said, grinning broadly. "I know getting you to form an exploration team was a great idea – I mean, nobody knows of this place! Well, let's see what we can discover and bring back from this cave, shall we?" Serge said with a big grin on his face. There was no doubt, he was excited and well, I felt excited as well.

  
  


As for the cave itself, it was damp, much like the drenched bluff, which I didn't like. Not that I personally minded getting a bit wet, but I knew it did no favours to Serge. I couldn't rely on him to do some good self defence here to keep any attackers away for me, since it really hampered his fighting ability. I'd have to get heavily involved and into the front-line of any fighting. I guided Serge down passageways in this unknown cave, looking carefully at the tunnel walls around us. Serge seemed to have a lot of faith in my judgements, but in all honesty, they were blind guesses. I had no idea where I was going.

  
  


"There doesn't seem to be much here so far, aside from a few underground streams and a few resident pokemon who seem to be frightened of us. I guess they don't know how to treat visitors, so show no sign of aggression, and they might see us as friendly people." I said to Serge quietly, as we walked carefully through the damp passageways. There were a few underground streams that seemed to flow in our direction, letting us know we were getting deeper within this hidden location. The light trickle of water seemed to echo all around the cave. A couple of water surges from the stream made Serge jump, but I didn't seem to mind. Matter of fact, I kind of liked here in a strange way. Perhaps they would name this 'Conviction Cave.' I liked the sound of that a lot, as it'd be a good mark to leave in this world before I return to my own world.

  
  


"Hey, Floyd, I've found something pretty cool!" Serge said, pointing to a fairly large gemstone, which was a fairly bright blue.

  
  


"Serge, this is incredible! We get a bunch of these, hid them from the guild, share the news of our discovery, and then…" I said, and smiled broadly, looking chuffed with myself. "…the good times will roll!" I said, and Serge put it in his bag, looking even happier than I was.

  
  


"Come now Serge, there's bound to be more of those big gemstones!" I said, grinning with the excitement of getting the gems – I might even be able to take some back to the human world with me! I walked down the cave, smug and fearless. This was going very, very well for me today, making today quite possibly the only day as a pokemon I actually kind of enjoyed in a way, at least so far.

  
  


"Seems like your warming up to becoming a pokemon Floyd, hehe!" Serge said, and I suddenly turned around.

  
  


"Shut it, I most certainly am not! However, I am warming up to the thought of getting a bunch of these big gemstones!" I said, retaining the symbolic smug look that snivys stereotypically had, as I continued to stride down deeper into the cave. A gastrodon walked in front of us, and noticed us, and it didn't look too happy. Savage pokemon being unhappy with our presence? Clearly, a recurring theme in this world...

  
  


"Aw, for fuck's sake not again! Never fear Serge, I'll deal with the bastard in front of us!" I announced. "Lesser being! We require thoroughfare! Stand aside!" I said to the gastrodon, really getting into the part of a hero, but it wasn't impressed. Matter of fact, I don't think it even understood what I said, which really should have been obvious to me by now. The only difference between this pokemon and the other ones that it encountered in the cave is that this one didn't like us, and that it had the balls to stand up to us.

  
  


"Very well, you leave me no choi…" I said, but I already saw it chucking a wave of mud at me, which I skilfully avoided and swished my tail in its direction, sending a few sharp leaves to cut it. It was hardly an agile opponent, and was hit square on, but it looked like could it take quite a few punches. It responded with a blast of water from its mouth, which nailed me square on.

  
  


"Blargh!" I yelled, as I was hit against the cave wall, but I managed to get up ok – I was hardly down for the count yet. I looked my opponent straight in the eye, and saw it wind up for another water gun attack, but I was ready for it this time. I ran towards it, and moved to the side to avoid the attack and jumped on its back. It felt very strange, but I knew I had pretty much already won. I started draining its energy to see if it would heal the couple of cuts I got from being slammed against the rock wall, and indeed, it was working. I really loved this technique, and I made a mental note to myself to keep using it often if I wanted to keep going throughout these hard conditions. I decided to just finish it by hacking it with leaf blade, using the leaf on my head. It seems like the physical variation I had compared to most other snivys was very effective in combat as well.

  
  


"And that Serge, is how it's done!" I said and bowed as Serge just rolled his eyes and chuckled.

  
  


"Come now Floyd, you're still learning learning, I could have done that in my sleep!" Serge said, trying to imitate my cockiness.

  
  


"Ah, Serge, next time we see some aggressive pokemon, do put your money where your mouth is." I said and smiled. We encountered no more aggressive ones as we got deeper and deeper in the cave, and I took a large red gemstone along the way, but I frowned a bit as I realised something. They probably only seemed to be that big because I was about a third of the size of my human self. Still, they're great artifacts anyway – show some to the guild and hide the rest – a sound plan indeed.

  
  


We walked slowly into a sort of large 'room' in the cave, where the ceiling was higher than usual and everything felt a lot less claustrophobic, but that was the icing on the cake as gems completely littered the entire place. These gems seem to have an odd attribute to them, as they seemed to form invisible hooks around the edges of my mouth, which pulled them into a huge smile. Or maybe it was just my lust for them and the wealth that they would bring – either possibility made perfect sense to me. I immediately started gathering them, but I noticed Serge wasn't too interested in the gems. Or at least the normal ones which I was gathering.

  
  


"Floyd, look at this one! It's massive!" He said, pointing up to the ceiling, and he was right – it was almost as big as I was! The prospect of bringing it back would be an issue, but a minor inconvenience compared to the vast amount of wealth it could bring. I could fund a full blown expedition with seasoned professionals to find clues on how to get back home with that!

  
  


"What are you waiting for Serge, go get it! It'll be our grand trophy for out little adventure!" I said, barely being able to contain my excitement. The other issue was, of course, the fact it was on the roof of the cave, and we certainly weren't tall enough to reach it.

  
  


"Not going to be that simple Floyd, we might have to pile some loose rocks to be able to reach it, or even blast it free with fire."

  
  


"We'll find the rocks, I don't want to tarnish this beauty more than we have to." And that's just what we did, and after about fifteen minutes, we created a reasonable pile of rocks that I used as steps to be able to reach the priceless gem.

  
  


"Bah...it's stuck tight! No way are we pulling this out!" I said, after an entire minute of pushing and shoving. "Serge, go give it a try." I jumped down to give room for him to climb.

  
  


"Well I am a bit stronger than you, I think I can get this." I watched Serge inspect the gem…and that was when it happened once more – the familiar blurriness, the spontaneous dizziness, the world seemingly getting pulled away from me. No doubt, I was receiving another vision.

  
  


This time, I saw Wigglytuff again, and he was where we were – in this cavern with all the crystals. Just like Serge and I, he was very interested in the large gemstone, and who wouldn't be? He was tall enough to get a good grip of it from the ground, and unlike us, he seemed strong enough to pull it out. He pulled down, wiggling it from side to side until he very suddenly stopped when water dribbled on his head, causing him to immediately push it back in with force. He swiftly jotted down some notes before turning around and leaving, and I could only guess there was some kind of underground river or lake exactly where we were. The vision ended right there, and I woke up gently. Serge was exclusively attention to the giant gemstone, blasting the rock around it with fire to loosen it. This wasn't going to end well!

  
  


"Serge, stop that! There's an underground..." I called out, it was too late. As soon as the gem landed on the floor, Serge's brief triumphant dance was quite literally washed away as torrents of water flooded through in what seemed like a plughole, and we were in the plumbing. Serge screamed as both he and I were drenched and carried off, both of us yelling in surprise and fear, as we battled to keep above the thrashing waters. Meanwhile, in spite of the fear gripping my senses, I knew I had to keep my head above the water. I spluttered as water splashed in my mouth, and I felt myself slam hard against the rock wall, dazing and cutting me as I was carried further and further down deeper into the cave.

  
  


The cave tunnel seemed to be getting narrower and narrower, and so much so that I would risk smacking my head off the cave roof If I kept my head up. I had no choice – I had to duck under the water and hold my breath and hope the water would take me some place safe. I just hope poor Serge was thinking the same thing. My eyes stung as if little needles were poking them but through the water I saw a little tunnel with light in it. It could be a chance to get through this!

  
  


Looking back to see Serge flailing behind me, had no choice but to try and steer myself towards that possible exit, and hoping that Serge would be with me. The small tunnel seemed to curve upwards very suddenly, and after bashing against the walls a few times, I was upchucked through some sort of vent, and found I could breath just fine now. That was the good news. The bad news is that I found myself completely suspended in the air. I could briefly see trees, but it all seemed so blurry as I fell down, and braced for impact. The impact came alright, but I landed in warm water with some soft soil at the bottom rather than hard ground. I stood up, and looked around. It all seemed to blurry and strange, and I hadn't the foggiest idea where I was.

  
  


"Hello? You seemed to come from nowhere! You almost gave me a heart attack!" An elderly, but kind voice said from somewhere, but I was still too disorientated to tell from what direction. I looked around, and I did see what looked like a large tortoise, which turned out to be the source of the elderly voice. My vision and senses became more solidified, and it soon became clear I was in some sort of hot spring – it certainly felt very nice, but then again, so would anything after being battered against cold water and rock.

  
  


"Erm, where…am I?" I asked, looking a bit embarrassed. "I kind of got washed up here when a massive torrent of water flushed me and my friend Serge out of the cave, as strange as that sounds. Wait, excuse me Mr! You haven't seen a cyndaquil around here, have you?! I sure hope Serge's ok." I said, but I heard a reassuring groan from behind me.

  
  


"Right here…" He said, looking like he had a worse time than me surviving the rampaging waters.

  
  


"Wonderful! I was worried buddy. Anyway…Torkoal? You are a torkoal, right? Sorry, my vision's still spinning, I can't quite tell for sure." I said, my vision still being blurred, not to mention my lack of knowledge of the pokemon.

  
  


"That I am, and before you ask again, this is a hot spring you found yourself in. Judging by your tale, you have no idea where it is, so I'd better show you so you can get back home." He said, and I brought out the map from my bag. I now see why they issued waterproof rucksacks. All my explorers gear would have been ruined if it wasn't waterproof, and pointed out where we were.

  
  


"To think the water took us all that distance." He said, stroking his finger across the sight of the waterfall to the hot spring on the map. I knew that Serge did not like getting wet unless the waters were warm, and looked even more shaken up than I had done after landing in the springs. Whatever the outcome, we were not ever doing this again.

  
  


"Serge, take this oran berry. Supposedly, they make you feel better." I said, giving him one from my bag.

  
  


"Anyway, we don't see many snivys around here. What brings you to these parts?" The torkoal asked me as I gulped. I had to lie, or be seen as a lunatic. I thought the latter would bring worse consequences, as per usual, so I just made up complete bollocks on the spot.

  
  


"My family rejected me because I didn't uphold their traditional values. The snivy culture is a sad one, so I had to find employment in other places. I never actually intended to become an explorer, but on the day I arrived in these parts, I met up with Serge who told me about it, and I thought it'd be a great way of earning money while being able to toughen up a bit. Since this place is tougher and more violent than back home, I'll have to learn how to protect myself somehow, or I could end up cooping myself inside treasure town permanently." I explained. Any doubts that my lies might give to this torkoal would have been put aside from the truthful second half. I was never a good liar due to my inexperience of such despicable acts, but nor was I terrible, and it seemed convincing enough for him.

  
  


"Ah, good. I won't lie; I have only met two other snivys. They were both arrogant and snobbish, so it's good to see a more polite one. Anyway, you two should rest here for about half an hour – I'm sure the spring will help relax you after that rather scary encounter you had." He said happily as we rested in the springs. Serge looked a lot brighter again after eating the oran berry, and before long, we left the springs feeling refreshed once more. While Serge spoke on and on about how the gem wasn't too big of a deal compared to the first genuine exploration survey we done, I really began to wonder what made him in such good spirits about all this. To think that we could have died in that sudden deluge, and I seriously began to wonder if it was risking my life this severely for, even if it means staying here forever.

  
  


Regardless, we were going to have quite a story to share with the guild, that should even put me in Chatot's good books. I could at least say this to myself – the rest of the day would surely be better than a battle against the chance of drowning. I'd be sure to mention to Serge to not tell them about the extreme gemstone content though, and it seemed the few that I took from the cave while he wasn't looking were safe in tact.

  
  


"Well, I guess it wasn't a total waste of time..." I said to Serge, Treasure Town now within sight. "We can always return there and get some more gems to make us rich, and we could even quit the guild after a while as long as we keep this quiet."

  
  


"Floyd, you're kind of missing the point of our work – it's mainly about the glory and excitement of helping to map out the rest of the land and beyond. Getting rich wasn't my primary target here." Serge said as I rolled my eyes.

  
  


"We should be getting rich in the process, considering how important it apparently is for the people here. Still, history had its great explorers back in the human world, which were pretty much essential to our kind in hindsight. I dunno, I just really don't get you – what drives you to risk yourself that much? You didn't even seem remotely put off by almost drowning back there!"

  
  


"Passion..." Serge said and turned to me as we walked into town. "...Is worth a lot of risk. Isn't that why you agreed to form the team with me? Isn't returning home worth that risk and chance for you?" I guess he was right. Still, I had better reason to risk such stuff and I damn well knew it. If he tragically bites the dust and dies during an exploration, then at least he'd die doing the thing he loves. There are a lot worse ways to die if you ask me.

  
  


I found that I really only needed one meal a day, while Serge required at least two, since he buys his own food on mornings. It was indeed a curious observation in my eyes as I wondered about my new body. While I was hungry, it seems like photosynthesise gave me some energy, allowing me to go through the day without having to eat much at all. It was only after comparing my eating habits to Serge's that I truly got the measure of what photosynthesise was doing to me.

  
  


Outside of the guild building, I saw some of the guild members talking together, seeming very excited for some reason. As I drew closer, I heard remarks such as: 'You did it?!' 'You finally caught him?!' 'The invincible haunter?! Arrested after all these months of fooling everyone?!' This got me interested, and me and Serge walked briskly to see the half the guild members surrounding Sunflora

  
  


"Hehe, when you say 'he', you should mean 'they' – it was a ruse by three haunters in total. They weren't individually tough, but when I took down one, I was suddenly blinded. What happened then, the second one would drag the knocked out one to safety and out of sight, and the third one would pretend that he recovered completely from my attacks, but I eventually figured it out, and took down the three of them with Loudred's help." Sunflora said proudly

  
  


"Loudred? I wondered where he went..." Diglett said "He just walked off when I was doing sentry duty with him."

  
  


"He came to help me. I really never got a chance to thank him, and apologise to him. I was a real... a real bitch to him, if you excuse my language. However, he was being mean to me before, but I really do hope we can put bad feelings behind us...oh, you two!" Sunflora said and waved to me and Serge.

  
  


"I heard this was an important day for you two, investigating the waterfall to see if there was an explanation to the seemingly unnatural rock formations at the waterfall, and to see if there was any secrets about the waterfall. How did that go?" Serge and I smiled broadly, and explained what happened, much to everyone's approval and surprise. "Oh my gosh! Really? Did you hear that? Seems like I wasn't the only one who was successful today!" She said with glee. Obviously, seeing her fellow guild members succeed also made her very happy. She seemed to have a 'togetherness' guild attitude, thinking that the successes of the guild were greater than the sum of the achievements of individuals within the guild.

  
  


"I heard everything!" Chatot said, grinning pleasantly, which was a little creepy coming from him. "I must say, you astound me. I won't lie, I thought it was a complete waste of time sending you two to investigate the waterfall, but you succeeded in finding all that information?! Well, well! Serge, Floyd, and Sunflora – you've made this a great day for the guild! Mainly Sunflora though, that haunter, I mean, those haunters really needed to be stopped – they caused more cases of theft and assault than I can count!" I smiled, but something told me that Chatot would go back to his suspicious and untrusting ways with me by tomorrow. Still, he was in a very good mood, so I had every intention of making the most of it while it lasted.

  
  


"I actually agree with you for once." I said back to Chatot in a slightly piss-taking way, and he wasn't amused at all as his usual frown returned.

  
  


"Enough of your cheek! But still, I guess it was a job well done. I heard the others are all going to the coffee shop soon – you might want to join them." Chatot said formally.

  
  


"Sounds like a great idea!" Serge said happily. "Been a long time since I had a proper evening in there – too bad we don't have that much money on us." I smiled when I heard this – seems like even Serge was down over the lack of pay and had a sense of value.

  
  


"It's a fairly cheap place, you'll be able to afford it comfortably with this payment right here." Chatot said and handed us our hard earned money. "I expect a full report to be handed in on the details by tomorrow night by the way, just saying you went there and saw stuff really doesn't quite cover enough details." Dinner soon came, and it was once again pretty damn tasty, with Sunflora being her usual chatty self.

  
  


"Say, Floyd." Sunflora said to me, leaning over when I had with a potato stuffed in my mouth "Do you have gummis where you come from?"

  
  


"No" I answered without really thinking about the question. It was an automatic response that was pretty much false. I have tasted sweets on many occasions, and I could only guess they were come kind of sweetie or something.

  
  


"Oh my gosh, really? This poor man has never had a gummi before! Oh, your are missing out, really! Well, I did hear that both of us and Serge are having gummi drinks on the guild according to the guildmaster, so it'll be a chance to try it out then for you. Trust me, everyone likes gummi drinks, isn't that right Serge?" She said, and Serge nodded. She sounded quite a few years older than me, late twenties perhaps.

  
  


"Oh, absolutely." Serge said, eating a bit slower than me, but still faster than most of the guild members. In all honesty, I was wondering how much power Chatot had within the guild lately. Wigglytuff just seemed to trust his judgement most of the time – it was like Chatot was Bismarck, and Wigglytuff Kaiser Wilhelm in the historic years of the unification of Germany. Maybe I could talk to him more about his theories on the humans while he was on good terms with me, because, while a frayed end, it was the closest thing I had to a lead to finding out how to return to my own world. I finished the plate of pasta, and thanked Chimeco.

  
  


"You're welcome Floyd. I'm grateful that you appreciate the hard work I put into preparing and cooking the food, since most guild members such as Bidoof and Loudred seem oblivious to it – it's sad, really. Anyway, great job on uncovering the secrets of the waterfall. When I was a bit younger, where I did exploring almost every day as guild work, I must have went past that waterfall twenty times, and I wouldn't have suspected a thing." Chimeco said back to me. "Too bad I'll have to wash up after this."

  
  


"I'll give you a brief had if you'd like – I've had a fair share of my experiences with washing up, believe me, my mum used to make me do it all the time." I chuckled merrily.

  
  


"Nah, it's ok, It only takes me about three minutes to do the entire lot, thanks for offering though. After all, I'm paid to do this." She said back. I just decided to hang out by the guild entrance until the others were ready. The sun was just peeking over the horizon at the sea line, as if waving goodbye to the ended day, but my day was far from over.

  
  


Eventually, as more pokemon finished their meal, they started making their way towards Spinda's coffee shop, which was conveniently, just outside of the guild. It was actually underground, and when Serge was finished, we both walked down into the coffee shop to be greeted with applause. Quite a few pokemon congratulated us on making the discovery, as such a new team as well. Other comments included that I was an immigrant, and some theorised that I was bringing new skills in from other areas, and other exploration techniques. Overhearing all the praise did make very very happy and content. I mean, I hated this world, I really did, but at least I was held in surprisingly high regard. An excited zigzagoon and heracross shook my hand, and started rapid-firing questions at me. Jeez, I had only discovered some cave. It shouldn't have made me feel like a celebrity, but perhaps exploration feats were held high in importance within this community and culture.

  
  


"How's the exploring over where you came from?" The heracross asked me, making me for a second. how was I really supposed to respond to this? I guess I'd have to make crap stuff again.

  
  


"Er...not nearly as prominent as it is here, really. I guess you could say that my recent success was down to having slightly different ideas for exploring due to the different environment...and luck. I won't lie, I'd say we were pretty damn lucky to achieve what we did without seriously mangling ourselves." It was honestly the best I could come up with. I mean, I wasn't going to tell them I had a vision of Wigglytuff verifying our findings at some point in the future, because who on Earth, or this planet or whatever, would believe that? They'd think I was insane, and besides, if they did believe me, it'd be even worse. They could swarm me, begging me to tell them their future, and even If I would have visions of the future at any time or place when I wanted to, it'd be very irritating.

  
  


I had no intentions of telling them the truth. Was I living a lie? Very much so, but it was a comfortable one, and no one seemed to doubt me. As far as I knew, Serge kept true to his word about not telling anyone about the real me. I just prayed that Dialga would understand my constant transgressions against his righteous word. Then, I was bombarded with more questions – some I could be truthful about, some I had to lie about. They didn't seem to be suspicious of me at all, but I was wondering if it would last. Then, I felt a tap on the shoulder from the Wigglytuff himself, looking cheery.

  
  


"Ah, Floyd, I think you're due a gummi drink on me!" He smiled at me, clearly in a very good mood, and it was only until now that I got an idea of how old he actually was. He seemed to be about old as my dad, with the colour of his bright pink fur around his eyes starting to lose its colour, not to mention a lot of the scars underneath in pretty much every location of his body. It was here I really understood the extent of experience in dangerous situation that this seemingly clown-like character really had. The skin and fur around his mouth seemed to sag ever so slightly, but the very slight wrinkles did not ruin any of the warmth from his endearing and welcoming smile smile.

  
  


I looked back as he led me to the counter, watching Sunflora walk in, getting an even bigger reaction, and was swarmed with even more questions than I was. I'd normally be bitter, but bringing dangerous criminals to justice was in the end of day more important than surveying caves behind waterfalls. Serge in comparison didn't receive as much. Perhaps it was because he wasn't an immigrant, and everyone seemed curious of how my 'skills' from abroad translated into being a successful explorer. What skills anyway? I was good at playing bass guitar, and that was about it really. I guess I could run distances without stopping – about five miles, but I wasn't particularly strong as a human. I strong enough to do pretty much anything I'd personally want to really, but I never had too much of a heavy-lifting lifestyle.

  
  


"What can I get you?" A voice suddenly said. It sounded like it was drunk, and talking to drunk people while sober was never good for me, since it always made me feel a tad uncomfortable. I turned around – it was a spinda, and I assumed he owned the place, since it was behind a counter, and it was, after all, named after him.

  
  


"Get this young man here a sage gummi tea, extra large mug!" Wigglytuff said loudly to speak over the excited banter behind them, and handed the green coloured gummi to Spinda. Upon briefly looking at it, something inside me made me drool. It looked so damn tasty, and I couldn't explain it. It shouldn't look that tasty, and I was not happy about any pokemon instincts making me less of who I originally was, but this was really a minor thing. I held back as I watched Spinda make the drink. He was evidently trying to show off while doing it for entertainment, but it fell way short of some of the posh pubs back home, and looked very bland and amateur, but I guess this was good by pokemon standards. He handed me the drink, and I looked inside and drooled. Again, I had no idea, but it just seemed like I was looking at the tastiest drink ever conceived, though I really did question the mix between a large liquidised sweet and herbal tea.

  
  


"Ah, so good!" Serge said, drinking his own one, which looked quite different from mine. In fact, I don't think it was even tea. I sat down, and slowly sipped my hot drink. It tasted even better than I had imagined it to be, and forced me hard to smile – I should really make this for myself when I get home!

  
  


"Aaahhhh..." I said out loud in satisfaction. It usually annoyed me when people did this loudly, but I couldn't help myself, since it was so incredibly refreshing and tasty! Every nerve fibre seemed to be massaged by the arming glow of this tea, and it rested gently in my stomach. To make things better, Loudred just came in, and didn't bother trying to point out that I was a parasite to the town. He was busy talking to Sunflora, and they seemed to be apologising to one another. I didn't say a word to him that night.

  
  


"By golly, you seemed to be quite the celebrity right now!" Bidoof said as he sat down with us, with Corphish following him. "It's really too bad that my big achievement had to be kept a secret. The guildmaster told us that information on the 'secretive pokemon' I found was to be kept hushed up due to legends about it, and how others would likely try to hunt it down and use it for real bad purposes."

  
  


"You sure you can't tell me more?" I asked, being very quiet, taking a bigger sip of my tea, feeling even more relaxed, putting my head a little closer to his.

  
  


"Jirachi." He said simply. "That race of pokemon has already been proven to exist, but I found one where it made a more permanent place to stay. With the legends regarding wish granting, you can probably guess that the jirachi we found would have some real bad visitors wanting to see him."

  
  


"Did you wish for anything yourself?"

  
  


"Now that would be telling now,wouldn't it? Yup yup!" He said and chuckled, making me really interested. As curious as I was though, I respected the fact that he wanted it to be kept private, so I didn't ask him about it.

  
  


"Hey hey, bet you two are happy you joined the guild now, huh? Bidoof was going to go AWOL at one point. I talked him out of it, and then what does he do a week later? Find said pokemon that we won't mention again. You see, he felt like a klutz and he felt as though he done nothing right, and then he did, something truly special. It's not fair! When do I, Corphish, get my moment of glory, huh?!" He said and we all laughed together cheerfully.

  
  


As for the rest of the evening, it went swimmingly. There was banter and more banter about everyone's explorations, and I even found myself being drawn into their conversations. For obvious reasons, Spinda looked over the moon. Lots of money and customers for him, but I was almost as happy. Being away from friends, family and other human comforts was terrible, but this world wasn't quite as awful as I first regarded it, since I was slowly getting used to it. I was probably held in higher regard here than back in the human world, and lets face it – everyone does care what others think of them, don't even try to deny it. You want to look good in the eyes of others, and I was doing a very good job of that. Eventually, after things quietened down a bit, I decided to head back to the guild to rest. Chatot said that he 'expected us to work just as hard tomorrow', so I might as well get some sleep. I stretched my arms, and smiled.

  
  


"I'm off back to the guild. Have a great evening, see ya." I said to the others and walked out. It was peaceful inside, in contrast to the lively coffee shop that Spinda owned. This suddenly made me feel lonely – exactly what were my family and friends doing now? Putting up missing posters of me back home most likely. They'd be worried sick, and the worst thing was, I could do nothing to return, at least for the time being. Being held in this high regard was cool, but it didn't stop a feeling of loneliness filling me. it was a buzz-kill to say the least.

  
  


My hands subconsciously twitched, as if I was playing my bass guitar – I missed that badly as well. I slowly walked back into the guild alone, my hands still twitching, as if they were in dire need to play my bass once more. I took the musical mood and my situation, and took out a piece of paper and pencil – perhaps I could console myself by writing a song about my current experiences? It wasn't like I could play it, but, in my inevitable return, whenever that would be, I can take my written music home and record it. I just hope I wouldn't be writing so many songs about my experience here that it would end up being a concept album. Nope, I will surely return before I get that amount of content to write about. I sat on the table and started humming melodies that suggested mysteriousness and uncertainty, that would represent the unknown factors in my week here, which was pretty much everything – how I got here, how to get back, and initially, where I was was all unknown to me. I sat there for about half an hour, trying to think up lyrics, which I was usually pretty crap at, but I tried my best anyway.

  
  


"Masking sadness, I trudge on,

With no clue, no real hope.

But I will find the truth

And return home with open arms.

This I swear."

  
  


That rounded things off not too badly. Of course, it was hard to focus with a hundred and one things buzzing around all corners of my brain. I heard footsteps getting closer, which, unfortunately, turned out to be Chatot.

  
  


"Oh, it's you Snivy." He said, and hoped over to see what I was doing "Eh, what's this here? Do you mind if I'm being nosy?" He said and looked, and, to my surprised, gasped in complete shock.

  
  


"B...but...b...HOW?!" He said, pointing at it.

  
  


"What? It's just a song. Is that illegal here or something?”

  
  


"How, on this green planet did you learn the language of the Chatot?!" He said, wide eyed and wide beaked. "How the fuck did you know about this?! Only Chatots know about our sacred language!"

  
  


"...Uh...I learned it." I said sheepishly. It was the truth, after all, since I wasn't born a human with innate knowledge of the western music standard, but Chatot didn't look convinced.

  
  


"Did someone teach you this?! Who?! Some Chatot from where you came from?" He said, sounding exasperated. "I don't know much about where you come from, but us Chatots keep our language to ourselves on this continent! Do you even understand what you were writing?!"

  
  


"Of course." I said and hummed the strange melody. "Ok, you've got an E9 chord there, and..." Chatot looked like he was calming down a bit, but still gave me baffled looks in disbelief.

  
  


"This is news to me! Someone who isn't a Chatot and knows of our sacred language! They even say that this right here..." He said pointing to his quaver shaped head. “...Is rumoured to have inspired humans to write music with our language.” I couldn't help but chuckle to myself, since the rumour was probably true. It was also rumoured in the human world too, some of the earliest composers apparently taking inspiration from these birds when writing their music.

  
  


"Hey, perhaps we could see each others music, perhaps even do something together with music, huh?" I said, trying to be nice and open in the face of all this, but all I got was an unrelated response.

  
  


"...I'm not sure if you're even a pokemon anymore. Oh, and why do you and Cyndaquil insist on being called by your birth name? It's really not appropriate, especially in a professional environment."

  
  


"Where I came from, it's the other way round, and perhaps Serge had the exact same idea by sheer coincidence. Wouldn't it just be easier to call me Floyd? I'd seriously appreciate that, and it'd be easier if we called each other what we wanted to be called."

  
  


"...Strange...eh, whatever." He said and walked off, and seemed to be returning back to his old paranoid self. I shook my head sadly and walked back into the room to finish my song. It wasn't very good, since I couldn't test it with the instruments to fine tune things, but I made did with it for the mean time. Serge came in a few minutes later, still looking very satisfied and happy.

  
  


"Well, that wasn't so bad then. I'm still not any closer to getting home though." I said, falling back on those thoughts now that I wasn't busy or distracted. I guess in some way this exploration stuff was good for me – it was at least engaging and stopped me from thinking about my situation too much.

  
  


"Yeah, that's really too bad." He said, almost as if he was in a hurry to get off topic. "Anyway, I was going to tell you a bit more about my relic fragment – I was thinking it might date back to an ancient civilization. I'm really not convinced it all truly started for us about a hundred and fifty years ago."

  
  


"Carry on..." I said, sighing slightly as I began to feel sleepy.

  
  


"Perhaps that we, or at least the ones from this civilization since you're not native to it, weren't the first. It did some research it the library, and nothing remotely like this has been discovered aside from a couple of instances, and both of the owners of similar fragments have passed away now. Still, I don't feel like sharing this with society just yet. Unlike the other two, I want to really find out the origins of this."

  
  


"Well, maybe there was a previous civilization, or maybe there wasn't. Regardless, I-" I was suddenly interrupted by Serge, who seemed a bit too excited about his own tales. I was starting to become a little confused why he wasn't as curious about someone who came from a completely different planet, or perhaps even a completely different dimension.

  
  


"I also lied about just finding it – I was given it, much like the other two were. It was from some strange green hovering being that I had no idea what or who it was. He, or at least I think it was a he just told me to look after it and to keep it. So as you can imagine, it just confuses the issue even further. I wanted to keep that part quiet for a while. Really opens up other possibilities, doesn't it. Actually, it was all quite ambiguous, I don't remember that night too well for some reason." It was an interesting story, and for some stupid reason, the strange pattern looked familiar. I dismissed it as a case of phoney deja vu, since I had that from time to time with no rhyme or reason, so it was immediately flushed from my thoughts. However, something that was always at the very back corner of my mind – the feeling of being sucked down a hole of some sort, trying to hold on to someone's hand, but slipping in the end...I could tell Serge this, I trusted him.

  
  


"Hey, Serge, I do remember one thing about what might of happened to me. This, so far, is my only lead, and it's a very frayed end." I said and took a deep breath, and explained what I experienced. "It seems to be a memory, and what's more, it somehow felt a lot more recent than me being drunk at that party. I can't help but shake the feeling that there was a whole lot I had forgot that happened between then. Perhaps in those lost memories lies the answer to my situation, and before you ask, I had no idea who was telling me not to let go. I know it was a person's hand I was trying to hold onto, but I don't recognize the voice. Worse still, this frayed end is unworkable really. I can't see anything here that would help me solve it and bring me closer to my goal of finding the truth." I said, sighed, then smiled slightly.

  
  


"Perhaps we both have our odd stories to solve. You'll find out what civilization that fragment came from eventually, and if it's not been documented in any library, it could be one of the biggest discoveries in history!" I said, and thought to myself for a bit. If Serge's suspicions were right, then either humans didn't bring the first civilisations to pokemon, since it would be the case that there have been civilisations before those humans arrived. Or perhaps there was an earlier incident of humans coming to this world that hadn't been officially discovered yet. I tossed those thoughts around my mind for a while before falling asleep. It was indeed a strange world I was trapped in, but the answers were out there to how I got here, and how to return had to be out there surely. I wasn't going to give up on that hope! It was all I was really holding onto really, which was the sad reality. Never the less, I swore an oath to myself – I will find out the answers...

 


	5. The Wreckers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Floyd encounters some new challenges in the form of three assholes, but, at long last, he catches a glimmer of hope which could lead him home.

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

  
  


Chapter 5: The Wreckers

  
  


  
  


It's been almost two weeks since the life-changing incident, and I was still refusing to accept that I could not escape this cursed world. My time here was filled with a few notable achievements, but not being able to even share it with the people back home made me miss them even more. As egotistical as it may seem, I could imagine my father panicking for my own safety and well-being as I speak. I could imagine there being some sort of police search for me, leaving my family and perhaps some of my friends worried stiff. I was no closer to finding out how this happened to me other than that vague 'memory,' I had, but I couldn't even recognize the voice. This memory was occupying my thoughts heavily lately, since it was the only real lead I had to figuring out what happened and how to get back. The memory would suggest that I went through some sort of portal and ended up here – a portal that neither me or this mystery man did not want me to go through, or at least it seemed that way. There had to be a portal back to the human would somehow! I was fixated on the thought of that portal for quite a while until I heard footsteps coming closer. I sighed – Loudred the living alarm clock again...

  
  


"Loudred, I'm already awake, thank you." I said, dismissing him before he could yell at the top of his booming voice. "You may go." I smirked, and watched him glare at me. He was pissed of about something to be sure, probably me, which suited me just fine, since the feeling of hatred was mutual between us.

  
  


"Hey Floyd...heh, thanks for shutting Loudred up before he got the chance to shout." Serge said from behind me, looking more refreshed than usual in the morning. We both got up and attended the retarded morning words of 'encouragement,' again, and it was getting very tiring hearing and repeating those same pointless words – they were never encouraging, and it never will be. As Chatot delivered the usual task of 'pick a job on the board and do it', something better came a long.

  
  


"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh! Look – I got mentioned in the Explorers Federation Weekly! Oh, and so did Serge and Floyd!" Sunflora screamed with joy and ran over to the rest of guild before they had a chance to get their work started.

  
  


"No way!" Serge said with glee. "I've read the weekly for quite a while before joining the guild - I always dreamed that I'd get a good word in about me! Did my copy arrive?" He said, as Sunflora went through the mail and handed Serge his copy.

  
  


"There we are Floyd!" Serge said, skipping the slightly larger article titled 'Sunflora, veteran apprentice of the prestigious Wigglytuff Guild, finally brings the notorious 'invincible Haunter' to justice', and went straight to ours, which was titled 'Wigglytuff Guild newbies discover 'Conviction cave' behind the waterfall east of Treasure Town, and became the shortest-lived exploration team to ever make a class B discovery.'

  
  


We continued reading the article, making me feel rather cosy about my achievements getting recognition. It read: 'Serge the cyndaquil and Floyd the snivy, who insist on being referred to by their parent-given names, of the newly formed Team Conviction discovered a hidden cave behind the waterfall, which was large in size, and was rich in gemstones of a large variety, and an experienced team of geologists will likely soon survey it in more detail. They were also washed away by a sudden deluge within the cave, suddenly swept them away to the local hot spring, almost a whole mile away from the cave, leading to beliefs that there could be some sort of underground lake or river above the cave. Serge, aged nineteen, described it as 'this is everything I hoped and dreamed to achieve in the early stages of my exploration career, and will hopefully be the first of many great victories for us'. Floyd, aged twenty, was somewhat less enthusiastic, and when asked in the Spinda coffee shop, he simply replied 'I guess it was a good achievement for us.'

  
  


'It is indeed curious to see an immigrant take up exploring, since there has been very few examples over the past year where any foreigners have registered as explorers. So far, the only immigrant to have ever made a notable discovery was the named snivy mentioned earlier. Is there some unknown quantity to this particular immigrant here? Some skill or viewpoint that is only found in those distant, far-away lands? Who knows, but we will be keeping an eye on what could be a prodigy exploration team in the making.' At the end of the article, we saw a painting of the two of us, looking confident standing beside one another. I noticed that there were many paintings, since it would seem that they have yet to invent cameras. Still, I was highly annoyed at Serge for letting them know that there were a huge trove of valuable gems down there, and I'd be sure to have a word with him later.

  
  


"Wow, we're setting records here Floyd, I sure am glad I found you on the beach when I did!" Serge said, wearing his excitement on his sleeves. This, and the article in a way made me feel somewhat uneasy however. I mean, we were only successful due to this bizarre future seeing power that I must have picked up when I was turned into a pokemon. It allowed us to locate Drowzee alarmingly quickly, and let us know that there was a cave behind the waterfall. Without it, we would have just been a very average, probably a poor exploration team, and yet, this power allowed me and Serge to break exploration records. It was too bad I couldn't get visions where and when I wanted them, and it was also a shame that I couldn't get one of the past. Perhaps I could have used it to see what happened to me, and that would be a massive step towards returning.

  
  


"Ok, enough of you getting cocky of your moment of triumph! You have work to do – get to it!" Chatot said from behind us impatiently. "I really don't know why the guildmaster vouched for you so much – let's just say that he has a hidden influence in the EFW."

  
  


"Excuse me Chatot, but what the fuck is your problem with me doing well in the guild? Look, if it's just flat out racism, just admit it and never mention it again. Or are you just in a bad mood again, as you seem to be most of the time."

  
  


"I really don't know how the fuck you two are doing so well...especially you, Floyd. I'll be running a background check on you soon." He said and hopped away. The idea of him searching and searching only to find endless dead ends made me chuckle. I obviously had no plans to tell him that I was a human, since there's no point in making myself look like a lunatic in front of him. It's not like he'd believe me anyway, and I can't exactly prove it per se. Serge and I climbed up the rather crude ladder to the floor above us to pick our assignment, when we saw two familiar faces...

  
  


"You two bastards?! What are you doing here? They should have arrested you for mugging Serge!" It was that koffing and zubat mugger duo that tried to steal Serge's relic fragment when I woke up on the beach to find myself being a snivy, and their aura of obnoxiousness had not diminished since our first encounter.

  
  


"Doing what everyone else does here – being explorers!" Zubat said in his annoying screechy voice. "So, Serge, it seemed like you had the balls to come here after all, huh. Kind of ruined the fact that you had to look to a lost looking immigrant to get you the guts to sign up as explorers."

  
  


"Now now, Zubat..." I said, feeling oddly angry. I didn't feel particularly irritable today, nothing bad has happened, and all things considered, it was a really good morning so far. "...You do realise, that he may not have had the guts to sign up alone, but he was half of the equation that made the record books in explorations!"

  
  


"Big words from a such a pussy! You didn't even get involved in fighting! you're an even bigger wimp than Serge!" Koffing said in his low, dopey voice. Clearly, my words fell on deaf ears.

  
  


"Point being? You two are as weak as shit! Serge, the 'cowardly wimp' beat both of you at once, and now that I've now got the guts to join in the fighting, and Serge's pretty much conquered his fears, we are, well, several leagues above you." I said, smiling smugly. I knew damn well it was true. But, there was something I didn't know...koffing smirked a bit.

  
  


"Well, we, Team Skull, did not have our leader with us at that little tussle. I think he should just be on his way here right now." When he said this, I smelled a ghastly stench from just outside of the guild.

  
  


"Oh, jeez, that the fuck is that?!" I said, blocking my nostrils. All the others on the floor did the same, except from team skull, who didn't seem to mind, and Croagunk, who actually seemed to like the smell, but that hardly surprised me. The smell came from a skuntank, who was climbing down the ladder, clearly with no consideration to how much offence his smell was causing. "Dude...take a fucking wash! You're stinking the whole damn guild out!" I said angrily, but he seemed to pay no attention.

  
  


"I'm with Floyd – come back when you smell tolerable!" Sunflora said, also looking pissed with Skuntank.

  
  


"Here ahead of time boys? Chaw-haw-haw, how considerate – I expected you to be late again." He said, looking pleased. "Please to meet you all, we're Team Skull." He announced loudly and brashly to those on this current floor.

  
  


"Yea..." I said, coughing due to the horrendous smell. "And you're two subordinates are muggers who really should be punished." I said and I coughed again.

  
  


"None of my business what these two get up to outside of Team Skull related activity." Skuntank didn't look fully supportive of their actions, but he certainly didn't mind or have a problem with them at all. "Don't worry you two, we have no intentions of actually joining the guild, since we're already quite efficient at doing things our unique way."

  
  


"Good, because I may not have to put up with your reek as much then, now hurry up and piss off!" I said bitterly. "Come on Serge, let's just do our task for today." It was another successful day for us, once again pleasing Chatot, though he was imminently annoyed by my 'shady' behaviour in the guild library.

  
  


"What are you doing Floyd?" He asked suddenly from behind me. I grumbled as the nosy officer peered over my shoulder.

  
  


"I was looking up information about some of the non-civilized pokemon." I said to him truthfully. "I was wanting to expand my theory knowledge on exploring. After all, isn't that how you became to one time be the leader of the fairly well know Team Epiphany back in the day?" I said, at least making an effort to be friendly. As much as I hated and disrespected him, I felt the occasional attempts to be friendly might at least make his frustration cool off so he doesn't take serious action.

  
  


"Why...yes...how did you know?" He said, clearly a little surprised who I actually decided to make conversation with him.

  
  


"It was in a discussion with Sunflora I overheard. You teamed up with a Feraligator, and a Hypno to form Team Epiphany, right? Apparently, you were the brains and driving force behind your works, and you told me that you joined a small federation dedicated to discovering the mysteries of the humans." I asked innocently. Chatot sighed, rubbing his head with his wing.

  
  


"Well, yes, that would be true. Theory knowledge of what other pokemon do was definitely my strength as an explorer. I mean, look at me – compared to a lot of species of pokemon, I'm quite handicapped. Chatots are not really built for combat, but, throughout my vast knowledge, I could use it to my advantage. I could tell what attack possible assailants were about to use and act accordingly, and it would seem like you are trying to do the same. Quite commendable in my eyes. My team mates were always getting hit by attacks that could have been avoided if they could tell the enemies were preparing to use the attack..." He said and fell silent for some reason, looking rather sad. "If only Feraligator knew..."

  
  


"What do you mean?" I asked.

  
  


"I don't really want to talk about it, but no doubt you will pester me to tell you, so I might as well get it over and done with. He was one of my best friends, and part of Team Epiphany, but on one exploration, he was hit savagely by an aggressive steelix. About five of them were rampaging, trying to severely injure us, expel us from the cave, or outright kill us. We didn't even bother trying to figure out their motives, since we just had to get out of there. Unfortunately, all the attacks were ripping the cave apart, and it was about to collapse. I escaped quickly, as Hypno tried to pick up Feraligator and run with him, since he had great difficulty. However, he realised there would be no escape for either of them that way, so he had no choice but to drop him and dash for the exit, leaving him to die. After the cave in, we desperately tried to dig him out, refusing to believe that he was dead. Two hours later we found him..." He said, swallowed hard, shivered and said bluntly. "...His head completely crushed – brains, bone shards and blood splattered everywhere." He said and went pale.

  
  


"That is what his always-friendly face had become. Hypno was traumatized, claiming that it was his fault that he was dead, and, in spite of my best efforts, I couldn't convince him to carry on exploring, and Team Epiphany came to a very sudden and tragic end. I still see Hypno from time to time, but he was changed by what had happened quite dramatically – he just isn't the same person anymore. After some solo exploring, I truly realised that knowledge is power. I was defending myself against pokemon far bigger and stronger than me efficiently, all because I studied them throughout many sources, taking my own notes after each exploration. I could exploit weaknesses and foresee attacks, which mode than made up for my lack of strength and combat potential." Chatot was clearly enjoying telling his wee story about himself to me. Full of himself? Perhaps, but I never had much humility either.

  
  


"Then, I met up with Wigglytuff when I opted to track down a sandslash who was trading illegal poisons. I don't know how ignorant you are, but of all the greatest explorers in the world, he ranks way up there with the very best. It was an honour that he wanted me to explore with him. I mean, he was a former Team Charm member! Apparently, he left because he wanted to be in charge of a team, and Lopunny was pretty much leading Team Charm. Evidently, he saw potential in me and recruited me. We we were very skilful together, but his leadership skills and...bizarre behaviour pretty much meant that we could not form efficient explorations. Besides, Wigglytuff looked like he was having other ideas after a while. He wanted to help the younger generation to become efficient explorers, so he set up the guild in the rather exploration-militant Treasure Town, which was also the first town ever made by the pokemon apparently, at least on this continent. It was ideal place to set up the guild, since you saw how much they revered you, Serge and Sunflora for your achievements. The town is practically fully geared towards explorations."

  
  


"I ended up doing a lot of the administration work, and as the guild grew, Wigglytuff became obscenely wealthy, and paid me a good whack as well, hee-hee! In spite of all this, I still to this day yearn for my earlier days with Team Epiphany, since I only get a chance to explore on Sundays. Wigglytuff often asks to come with me, which I am still very grateful for. He really is a good friend once you see past his eccentricity. Ah, it's been almost thirty years of my exploration career...set off when I was fourteen, and here I am at the age when I am going to inevitably have a mid-life crisis, still exploring...well...doing the administration work at least. Hey...between you and me, the Guild master is planning a guild expedition to fogbound lake. Apparently, it's never been confirmed that the lake even exists, so it would be suited for large scale expedition, to cover larger areas."

  
  


"Normally, we would never consider newbies to the guild to come with us, but you and Serge for some reason are showing massive promise, so you could well be invited...if you keep up your rate of work." He said to me, barely taking a breath. I could imagine him boring people senseless with his constant banter and rabbiting on about himself, and yet, I found it a curiosity. Perhaps that's why he was trying to have a background check with me, since, as he told me knowledge is power, and he was trying to acquire as much knowledge as possible.

  
  


"...I have been trying to find out about you, but there seems to be very little trace of you, but I want to ask you a question. Where about on this far away continent did you come from, hm?" He said, looking at me right in the eyes. Shit...I needed to make something plausible and vague sounding to get away with it, and quickly.

  
  


"By the south shore." I said quickly. Chatot looked sceptical, and for good reason, since the lie came with a stutter that lacked any form of confidence.

  
  


"Hrm..." He said and suddenly pulled at the leaf on my head. "Your variety of snivys come from an island a few miles east of the continent. Life there was harsher, so the ones with this mutation, like what you have on your head were more efficient at defending themselves, and were able to survive better than the ones without, or so the theories go. Are you sure you came from the south shore?" He said, and I responded immediately.

  
  


"Of course! My family moved there for a better standard of life." I said quickly. I could not afford to look shifty for one second. I could not afford for Chatot to become more suspicious about me, but what if the south shore had a lower standard of living? I crossed my fingers behind my back and awaited for his response.

  
  


"...Indeed...the east island seems to be rather backward compared to the rest of the continent as far as I know. Little is known about the continent to us, since it's so far away, and only a few can swim or fly that far. How did you get all the way here, hm? Travelled on a sea dwelling pokemon?" He said, clearly intent of continuing this 'interrogation.'

  
  


"...Yes." I said, kicking myself for faltering. "A lapras was heading there anyway, and I had to get away from the incredible snobbery of the south shore." I said to him, re-mustering my confidence. Chatot, fortunately, was looking more content.

  
  


"Indeed, apparently, the south shore citizens are a very arrogant people, and the population has a very large proportion of snivys, and the others in their family, and are generally speaking some of the most arrogant pokemon in existence on the whole." He said, shamelessly applying stereotypes to a race of pokemon. "Your parents, who were they?"

  
  


"Rhona and Kirk." I said, using the names of my real parents.

  
  


"Serperiors I would believe?"

  
  


"Well, uh, yes...obviously they are." I said, stumbling a bit over this lie. I mentally kicked my own head firmly, yet Chatot seemed to be appeased.

  
  


"Most unusual that you would forget even for a second the name of the race of pokemon that you would inevitably become, well, if it weren't for the fact that luminous spring has for some reason stopped working. I mean, we have no idea what's causing it. You are aware that evolutions have ceased to occur anywhere the past few months? This is not a crisis for me at all, and for most pokemon, we can get by, but for some, such as those who give birth to pokemon who cannot have children until they evolve, such as pichu...could spell extinction of their kind if luminous spring does not re-function again at the absolute worst case scenario. Has any other luminous springs or other evolution ritual sites work over in the far continent?"

  
  


"Yes..." I said, desperately trying to think of details that he would inevitably ask for. "Wait...I think a few weeks before I left, I heard it being mentioned that a luminous spring over there was out of order." I was getting worried now – how long could I keep up these blasphemous lies for?

  
  


"Ok, I thought it'd be a major crisis over there as well. I hope for your people's sake that it also stops over there too, and I seriously hope it's not happening throughout the entire planet! You must have been living under a rock over there by the way you were talking to me, hee-hee! It's getting late, I would suggest going to bed, and not a word to anyone about the expedition. I don't know why I even told you. I'll give you credit, at least you're a good listener. It's not often a man in his forties is listened to by someone who's only recently turned twenty...goodnight."

  
  


It was at that moment when I came to a conclusion about Chatot. It wasn't only a racist thing he had with me, for it was also his never ending quest to obtain more knowledge made him ask me about my past. I guess the fact I told him things made him more friendly with me. He was a very temperamental fellow to say the least. I could generally tell what he was thinking, but what mood would he be in when I next encountered him? I wondered if even Dialga would know. As I walked off to bed, I kept true to my word – I didn't even tell Serge about the expedition.

  
  


I don't believe in lying, unless its for my own safety when I had done nothing wrong. A maxim that I follow fairly strongly from the Righteous Tome of Dialga, since lying was strongly frowned upon by Dialgans on the whole. We believe that it is a violation of humanity, and we even have evidence. Humans are not supposed to lie, and certain things happen to us when we lie – blood flow rate does increase, no matter how good or confident we are as liars. The evidence is in our own physical selves. However, the exception to the 'don't lie' rule, is for your own safety and well being when you have done nothing wrong, which is what I've been doing ever since I came here. I longed to hold the righteous book stronger than ever. I needed guidance, and I was finding it slowly getting harder to make good decisions in this alien world.

  
  


The next morning came swiftly, accompanied by Loudred roaring his ass off. What disgusts me is that he actually gets paid a little bit to do this. Where's a fucking regular alarm clock when you need one...

  
  


"Should be a good day today." Serge said cheerily, clearly not minding Loudred yelling at him. I scowled bitterly, glancing at his cheery attitude.

  
  


"Humph, I can't be arsed with this right now, but I need the money and a place to stay...you do realise that, right?" I said bitterly, and Serge looked just a little bit disgruntled. I was rarely happy in the morning, since I was usually still asleep until I came to this world. Serge dragged me to the announcement session, grabbing me by the arm.

  
  


"OK, I have a stream of important announcements to make, so pay attention!" Chatot said commandingly once we were all here, looking at each of us. Not only did I see Chatot and Wigglytuff in front of me, but, off to the left...Team Skull?! What the fuck was this?!

  
  


"The first announcement..." He said and grinned. "In two weeks time...there will be a guild expedition!" The guild erupted in approval; it was almost deafening, as the yells seemed to shake the very guild interior itself.

  
  


"QUIET!" Chatot yelled, making a far louder sound than I thought was possible for him, as it almost made me shake in shock of the sheer volume. "Ugh, I knew that would happen! Ok, the guild expedition is to Fogbound Lake, if it even exists." He said, and hopped over to the large map, and pointed to where he and Wigglytuff thought it was.

  
  


"Now, as you may know, nobody has of yet being able to even confirm the existence of the lake, due to, as the name of the lake would suggest, is perpetually covered in fog. Our aim? To verify the existence of the lake and bring back any artifacts and gems we might find. Perhaps we might be able to uncover an unbound type of gem that'll make us all rich!" I couldn't help but chuckle to myself. I had Kangaskhan put the gems we found in Conviction Cave in the waterfall in her storage service, and tipped her some coins to keep it confidential. I wasn't going to share those with the guild, since they'd probably try to nab sixty-five percent of them.

  
  


"Now, not everyone can go. from what we have heard, the wild pokemon there are highly vicious, and this is unknown territory where the visibility will be very small. We shall pick those who we think are good enough to come, so use this time to prove yourselves worthy!" He said loudly. Wigglytuff looked far more interested in the large apple he was eating than the talk on the expedition – I guess Chatot was also employed to speak on his behalf as well. Granted, Wigglytuff's voice just spewed insanity, so I couldn't really blame blame Chatot. “ As for the second announcement – Team Skull to my right here, have stayed at the guild overnight in case any of you didn't notice, and will be staying with us for the next couple of weeks. I would assume that you are wondering why, and I'll tell you. These three have made a team effort to try and find the fogbound lake a few days ago. but failed to find it. However, they can tell us their findings when we, the guild, and Team Skull go to try and find the fogbound lake in two weeks."

  
  


That really dampened my excitement about this expedition. I am going to have to spend two weeks with that smelly bastard and two muggers? It's only getting worse in this world for me. I guess Skuntank doesn't smell as bad today, and Koffing and Zubat? Perhaps they were one time off muggers. I mean, it is entirely possible they might no cause trouble, but I was getting way to optimistic. They looked like the sort who would be up to no good, and, with a name like 'Team Skull', I could hardly expect them to be friendly. Regardless, I had no intentions of talking to them, and I prayed they had no intentions of talking to me. As per usual, we were sent off to do our usual 'do a job request on the board', but, Chatot suddenly seemed to change his mind when we went selecting jobs.

  
  


"Floyd, Serge...I need you two for something." He called from below us. I rolled my eyes as I climbed back down the ladder.

  
  


"Had a change of mind about the jobs?" Serge asked.

  
  


"Well, we have a huge problem on our hands..." He said, looking very serious. "You see...our stock of 'perfect apples', as our guildmaster likes to call them...they're all gone! I mean, we only restocked a few days ago. Either way, you need to go to the Apple Woods to get some immediately!"

  
  


"Chatot, how in the world is this an emergency?! I mean, they're only apples – it's not like we're low on other food stocks, are we?" I asked, looking puzzled.

  
  


"Look, the guildmaster gets...well...you don't want to know what he is like when he cannot get access to a perfect apple when he wants one. 'The apple woods.'” He said and pointed to it on our maps. "The 'perfect apple' trees will be round about this area of the forest, and you can tell by the trees having far darker leaves than normal. Just bring back as many as you can carry – get to it!" I shrugged and left the guild building.

  
  


"I suppose we should get those apples then..." I said, grumbling. It felt like I was trying to fuel a big child's craving for chocolate under threat that he'd destroy a prised possession of mine. It made me wonder exactly how old is Wigglytuff was. If I was told that he was seven or seventy, I wouldn't be surprised either way. Based on what Chatot told me, and by the close look I got of him while at Spinda's coffee shop, I assumed that he was in his early to mid fifties. Back in my world, he probably would have received help from a psychiatrist, and it did make me wonder how he became one of the most reputable explorers in the world. Seriously, why can't that man-child just get his stupid apples himself...

  
  


"Hey, at least it's a nice walk here." Serge said, and I had to agree – these woods were pretty much devoid of aggressive pokemon. I looked up at the lush green leaves and the golden brown tree trunks, as the yellow sun beamed down pleasantly, providing us with a nice heat that wasn't uncomfortable. I also so some apples - they sure looked tasty.

  
  


"Serge!" I said pointing up above us. "Are they these 'perfect apples' that Chatot was referring to?" I asked, and saw Serge shake his head.

  
  


"Nope, they're a lot bigger, and deeper in the forest, and the leaves are only slightly darker - I've been here before, I know where they are, don't worry," He said. The wildlife here was not territorial at all, and almost seemed to welcome us. A couple of caterpies stared from us from a tree branch as we walked by, clearly not minding us at all.

  
  


"Y'know Serge, there was a woods like this back in my old home back in the human world – such fond memories..." I said, the nostalgia getting to me. "More than any time of my life, do I know appreciate those days..." I said and swallowed hard, holding back the sadness. I had a job to do, and I intended to do it well, regardless of how I felt. Before too long, we came to a very small clearing, and saw a cluster of trees with very thick trunks in front of us, with almost unnaturally dark deciduous leaves.

  
  


"Here we are Floyd! Let's just jam in as many perfect apples as we can find and...wait...someone's there..." Serge said, walking forward slowly. "...Team Skull...?!" Serge was right. I was sure I saw – and smelled – Skuntank in those trees. We were obviously heard, because Zubat came out from behind the trees.

  
  


"Wow, didn't expect to see you two here!" He said in his usual annoying high-pitched voice. I looked formally at him, and mutually spoke to him, hoping to avoid aggression.

  
  


"Well, we were here to collect perfect apples to help refill the guild's stock. Now, if you excuse us, we'll only be a few minutes." I said and approached the tree, when I heard a very loud fart that was so loud and honking that only Skuntank could have produced it, and to say that it was revolting would be an understatement – It was almost choking me! "OK, Serge...I'll just climb up this tree, and pass the down to you." I said, scowling at the stench.

  
  


"I think you'll find that there's none left." Koffing said, as I was about to climb up. "We kind of ate them all." He said, in a somewhat mocking voice. "Look, we're having a gay old time, just leave us alone!"

  
  


"I somehow doubt that this was a coincidence..." I muttered to myself. "Ah, I'll just go up the other tree here..."

  
  


"Listen, Floyd, we're taking those apples for our selves after we're done, so don't you be taking anymore." Skuntank said, sounding irritable.

  
  


"Ah, piss off, there are plenty of trees around here that give perfect apples. How many have you three eaten, seven each?!" I said to them forcefully.

  
  


"I'll say it again, Floyd...leave, or get your arse smashed all the way back to your own continent!" Skuntank said loudly – he was pissed off to be sure. "And before you ask, I thought very highly of Koffing and Zubat for trying to mug Serge. Using initiative to get what we want...it was just too bad I wasn't there."

  
  


"What's your point?" Serge said loudly. "I mean, we're only taking about fifteen back with us. There must be at least two hundred perfect apples in these spots!"

  
  


"They're all mine!" Skuntank announced. "Last chance – walk away or get your head's smashed in!" He said, with a somewhat odd look in his eye. I smirked at him, watching his scowl become more prominent across his face, which looked more and more like a human arse.

  
  


"It's not my fault your parents never taught you how to get a wash. I understand that it makes you feel cranky, but it's something you must conquer by yourself." I said, gave him the middle finger, winked and stuck my tongue out at him in an immature fashion to show how little I thought of him. There was no backing down from this incoming fight as he began to go from slightly pissed to furious.

  
  


"All right boys, I'm gonna help you get your revenge on these guys!" Skuntank said and charged at us. Typical violent nature from these pokemon...

  
  


"OK, Serge, do as we usually do!" I said to him, as he ran off to the side, while I retreated, using razor leaf to try and cut Skuntank. However, he was rather robust, and while he wasn't entirely shrugging them off, it didn't look like he was being hurt by them too much, and carried on charging at me, a little faster than I expected. However, Serge was ready to do his usual thing, and hit Skuntank hard with a flame wheel from the side, bashing him against the tree.

  
  


"Ugh...you two! Deal with Serge! I'll take out Floyd!" Skuntank announced to his lackeys. He wasn't stupid that's for sure, and our signature 'Conviction flank' was torn apart, which relied on the assailants, or assailants to focus their attention on me. I had no choice but to try and beat Skuntank on my own, and I stood ready for what he was going to do. He charged at me again, so I could simply just jump over it and attack from behind. However, like I said before, Skuntank wasn't stupid – he suddenly stopped and quickly turned on the spot, and managed to ignite his own 'fluids' and spayed fire at me like napalm. This I was not ready for, as I had already jumped in the air. I fell down into the flames, and screamed in pain as searing hot temperatures stabbed at every part of my body. Next thing I knew, I was tackled hard into the tree with full force, and my body was covered in many different types of pains that all blurred together into a form I could barely even make out.

  
  


"That takes care of him..." Skuntank said, and went over to help deal with Serge, who was actually keeping Zubat and Koffing at bay, and both of them looked quite burnt. However, as much pain I was in, I wasn't out yet. I pulled my aching body to my feet, and stared at what was happening. There was no way Serge was going to be able to take them out by himself, and realising my pain wasn't actually crippling me, I ran forward, remaining quite quiet. Serge scored a direct hit with an intense and forceful stream of fire at Koffing, sending him flying back, and putting him out of the picture for the mean time.

  
  


"Oh, I'll make you regret that!" Zubat said, and went to try and bite his neck, but he had forgotten about one important part of the equation – me. As he swooped towards Serge, I leaped in the air, and twisted, unleashing my most powerful cutting attack to date, using gravity to help me strike with more power. It utterly mauled Zubat, as he went crashing on the ground, bleeding quite badly, screeching in pain.

  
  


"Koffing, you said that Floyd was a weak pacifist! Ugh, let's just end this and be done with them!" He said, as Koffing slowly got up, clearly in pain from receiving those severe burns. Serge seemed to have taken the choice to lead them into the woods, trying to divide them, as he retreated inside them. Good to see him being tactical like me for a change, and I followed him in.

  
  


"Be careful, they'll probably ambush us." Skuntank said quietly to Koffing. Indeed, I had planned to do just that, and once again, it did seem like Team Skull had been going for quite a while, and Skuntank was an experienced leader. They stood back to back as they moved through the forest. Serge had to hide in the bushes, while I hid up a tree, where we could co-ordinate our ambush from. Unfortunately, Serge wasn't well camouflaged, due to his own colour scheme, and was spotted rather quickly by Koffing. That's when I spring into action – I leapt down from the trees when their heads were turned, and screamed deliberately, wit just enough time for Skuntank to turn round, and brutally slashed his face with leaf blade. I drew blood from the attack, and the edge of the leaf on my tail was covered in a thin line of it. I saw Serge take the initiative and follow up by tackling Skuntank, but the sturdy opponent still stood. Koffing was also another initiative taker, and responded by tackling Serge, who crashed into me.

  
  


"Let's just do it!" Skuntank said to Koffing, who clearly understand what 'it' meant, as they both inhaled deeply. I was a bit dazed to tell what was going on, but Serge knew fine well, and blew flames at them, as they started quickly blowing noxious gas our way. My eyes suddenly opened widely, since I could tell what was about to happen, but it was too late for me to do a thing about it. When the flames and gas collided...well...it wasn't pretty. All four of us were sent in all directions by the loud explosion. I was immediately knocked out when by head collided with a tree, and my head was badly cut and bruised from the impact. I don't know how long I was knocked out for, but I was woken by Serge, who was shaking me, who was clearly in a better state, given he was physically more durable than I was.

  
  


"Floyd...bad news! I've looked around the forest, but all that gas ruined the applies. I mean, would you eat this?!" He said, showing me an apple that now looked inedible, clearly rotted by all the noxious smoke. "Aw crap, there must be something we can do...let me help you up." He said, and Serge pulled me vigorously to my feet. I looked around, my vision still blurred, my body spiking with pain all over, and I was cut in a few places.

  
  


"Ugh...it hurts..." I said and looked around. Indeed, some apples were on the ground, some still in the tree, all gone rotten. "I guess we could take some of the apples to Chatot as evidence of what Team Skull did. “We might be able to get rid of them from our lives, or at least get them kicked out of the guild." I said bitterly, grabbing a rotten apple, feeling sick even looking at it, before put it in my bag. Serge also got a few as evidence, and we started heading back to the guild. Needless to say, our journey back was a lot less pleasant, each step made the pain in my body pulse. Team Skull had obviously recovered faster, and had already left. Eventually we arrived back in the guild, where we saw Chatot waiting, and boy did he look furious!

  
  


"What...the...FUCK?!" He yelled, spitting as he did so. "You think attacking another exploration team is your kind of 'fun'?! Floyd – you crippled Zubat! I don't think he'll be able to fly for another week due to you slicing at his left wing! I just hope he can recover in time for the expedition...what were you thinking?!"

  
  


"Chatot, Team Skull attacked us!" Serge said in defence. Clearly, Chatot was having none of it.

  
  


"Lies! I could see it in your eyes, you hated them right from the get go! You thought it'd be a good idea to show your hatred on them when they were peacefully in the woods having a few perfect apples among themselves. Care to explain why you, I dunno, couldn't just get some perfect apples from the trees next to the tree Team Skull were getting their apples from?!"

  
  


"They wanted to have them all!" Serge replied, taking more of a stand than he usually does. "They threatened us that if we did not leave the woods and their apples, they would try and beat us up, and it went into a fight – they were the aggressors, not us!"

  
  


"Save it Serge! Floyd, I never knew much about you, I'm not surprised you'd do something at all, but Serge – I expected a whole lot better from you! You disgrace the guild, both of you! Now, perhaps the pain of the situation will be eased if you would reveal the apples you brought for the guildmaster – I guess your task will be successful after all!" I frowned and sighed, I really did feel like punching the biased bastard in the face.

  
  


"And you really believe them?! Well, I'll tell you what happened to the apples..." I said bitterly and brought one out. "They started spraying noxious gas around the area, trying to weaken and knock us out, and that's how these apples became rotten and inedible." Chatot looked like he was about to explode his guts all over the guild interior from anger.

  
  


"Those...aren't perfect apples...they're shit!" Team Skull only did that in self defence. I mean, who can blame them?! You were the ones trying to attack them! Any of us would take a stand against someone who was trying to beat us up. So you brought back no perfect apples whatsoever?! I...you're coming to see the guildmaster about this! For the crimes of being violent towards a friendly exploration team who is helping out the guild...we'll let the guildmaster decide how to punish you. If it were up to me, you'd both be thrown out of the guild immediately!" He said, and lead us into the guildmaster's chamber.

  
  


"Friendly friends! Do have a perfect apple for me?" He asked, clearly looking happy and excited.

  
  


"No, because these two violent failures did not bring back any apples, and severely injured Team Skull." Chatot said formally.

  
  


"They injured us as well..." Serge said bitterly.

  
  


"Shut up!" Chatot snapped at Serge. Wigglytuff didn't look too bothered, or at least not necessary.

  
  


"Oh? But we're all friends here - I'm sure they would never do a thing like that - nor would Team Skull!" Wigglytuff said in a very cheerful voice. "Now, where's my delicious, perfect apple?" Chatot swallowed hard, and sweated slightly.

  
  


"I already said..." he said shaking "We have absolutely no perfect apples. I'm afraid that you'll have to go without for the time being..." Wigglytuff's smile faded and looked sad.

  
  


"No...perfect apples...?!" He said miserably, but then, he started looking frustrated "No..." His frustration turned to anger into rage "Perfect...APPLES?!" He suddenly bellowed. His rage and seething anger was becoming so much, it almost felt like the very guild building was shaking in fear of Wigglytuff. Chatot looked as pale as a vampire, and looked even more scared.

  
  


"Guildmaster, please!" He said, begging for him to calm down, and just as the shit was hitting the fan...

  
  


"Guildmaster, I have for you, a perfect apple." It was Skuntank, with a large cut right across his face, with a perfect apple in his right 'hand'. The guild master's rage very suddenly stopped, and he smiled broadly.

  
  


"For me?! Ooh, thank you, thank you!" he said and took it in a big hug. "Yay, perfect apple!" He smiled broadly, and started bouncing the apple of his head, and clearly didn't intend to eat it right away.

  
  


"Th...tank you, Skuntank. I knew you were a good guy, unlike Team Conviction." He said, casting a nasty glance at us.

  
  


"That is not a problem. It's just really that Team Conviction really got violent there, though perhaps they might cool of in the future. We didn't do anything wrong, and perhaps over the next few days, they will learn that it was wrong and what they did, but I'll forgive them this time." He said and nodded, clearly just trying to look as good as he could in front of Chatot and Wigglytuff. That bastard – I'd find a way to make sure he suffers for this!

  
  


"You two, say sorry to Skuntank immediately, and to Koffing and Zubat when you see them. Clearly, the guildmaster is too hyper to bother punishing you, but I'm sure he won't mind saying knowing that you two are forbidden to attend meals from now on. I also very much doubt that you two have any chance of going to the expedition now, but that is up for the guild master to decide. Now, you two get out of my sight!" He said, and we left immediately. Throughout the entire ordeal, I had to restrain myself very hard for smashing his sorry face in. This was injustice at it's greatest, or at least in my life and experiences. We sluggishly walked out, and then heard Chatot say:

  
  


"And I'll think of another punishment to suit this afterwards!" He said, and I retorted.

  
  


"And how are we supposed to remain healthy?!" I said bitterly. "Without food, we'll grow very weak!"

  
  


"Buy it down the street yourself!" He said, and slammed the door. Serge looked rather miserable, whether I was more occupied by anger. We just sat outside the mess hall as everyone happily ate their dinner, that asshole bird came strutting towards us once more.

  
  


"Oh, and while you're not at dinner..." He said, handing us cleaning equipment. "You can clean the entire guild every evening. get to it immediately, or I will personally make sure you're kicked out of the guild! Now make yourself useful!" He ordered as he hopped back to the mess hall. I flipped him off as I started the cleaning. I was no stranger to cleaning houses, but this guild got dirty fast, due to the fact that most of them do not wipe their feet when they come in. Later, as the other guild members left the mess hall, they either looked at us with sympathy, or disbelief, or in the case of Loudred and Team skull, nasty sneers. I figured Loudred just wanted to see me suffer, really. the last one to come out was Chimeco, and she looked almost as pissed as Chatot.

  
  


"...Team Skull...those bastards! I know you speak the truth! I overheard Team Skull talking to Chatot, spraying their rubbish about you. I cannot believe Chatot believed them and did this to you! He even ordered me not to make food for you. Well, he can get stuffed! I did make some for the both of you, but not a word to anyone about this, ok?" She said, and I smiled broadly, and we went into the mess hall, and she handed us our plates of food, which we happily ate.

  
  


"Oh yeah, and something that might interest you. I overheard Team Skull and Loudred talking in private..." This got me very interested. Were they conspiring against me? It wouldn't surprise me. "In short, they all want you out of the guild, Floyd. Team Skull also want Serge out for that matter, You were pretty much set up, and Chatot played right into their hands. I tried talking to Chatot about it, but he was having none of it though. I'll be honest, I'll be angry if you two don't get to go on the expedition, since you sure have worked harder lately than...well...pretty much everyone here lately."

  
  


"Loudred particularly hates foreigners because he has had some bad experiences with them. He got mugged by a excadrill about nine moths ago, and noticed that a foreign cuisine trio left after about a year, taking a lot of their money home. He's convinced that pretty much every foreigner is trying to do that, including you, Floyd. Stupid of him to group and generalise everyone like that. Oh, and as long as I never get caught, I'll still make your meals secretly – doesn't Chatot know it's incredibly unhealthy for you two to avoid meals? Especially considering that the two of you are active explorers that need lots of energy for the physical work you do?!" This made me very happy to see someone who knew the truth, and was on our side. I could always count my allies and friends in most situations. I happily ate behind the closed door before Chimeco started talking to me again.

  
  


"I did some research on the rumours of fogbound lake...according to legend, there is some who guards the lake – a being known as Uxie." She said. I had heard of Uxie before, being a mysterious entity in religious texts. He was a being mentioned in Arceism, the religion of Arceus, in particular. Supposedly, it was one of Arceus's three entities used to elevate mankind from the common animal and pokemon, Uxie being the entity of knowledge. "Supposedly, he can wipe the memories of people, so that anyone who does actually find the lake, completely forgets about it. Maybe quite a few people have discovered the lake already but don't remember a thing about it.

  
  


This struck a major chord with me. Finally, I could well be onto a lead here! I knew my memory had been fucked up, so maybe Uxie did it! And, considering that he is the being of knowledge, he might know what happened to me! Inside, I was very, very excited, my blood pumping faster and faster all around my body. I absolutely _had_ to go on the expedition! It was a lead and a damn strong one at that! My patience in this guild was starting to pay off! I 'looked' at the glimmer of hope with puppy dog eyes – surely, if I work incredibly hard, I could still go. Serge wondered why I looked so excited, and I told him once we returned to out room. We made a pact together to ensure that we were picked. Fogbound lake, Uxie, the truth...here I come!

 


	6. The Selection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Floyd and Serge work to prove their worth into going on the expeditions, each with totally different goals. Uxie would await them, but could they earn the right to search out this mysterious and mythical lake?

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

  
  


Chapter 6: The Selection

  
  


  
  


In spite of all the shit that has happened to me here, risking my neck with these 'explorations' and 'rescue jobs', living life on a knife's edge just to have a roof over my head and food to eat, there was, at long last, a glimmer of hope. The guild's expedition to prove the existence of fogbound lake would prove ever so important to me, since it is said that the being of legend, Uxie, lives there. He is said to have the power to wipe memories clean, and given how I felt confident that my memories were scrambled, he seemed like a likely cause of it. Back in the human world, Uxie is known as the 'entity of knowledge.' He is of the three beings that came together to form 'the human spirit,' and rose us humans above the pokemon and animals. That according to the Arceus worshipping majority that covered this planet like a plague, trying to wrestle with politics, trying to keep as much as their poisoned doctrine in the world as possible, however, so I'd only take what they said with a pinch of salt. I used to think that these beings were all folklore and myth, but I was having second thoughts now. Uxie is obviously heard of in this world, such a knowledgeable being surely had the answers.

  
  


I knew that my memory had been tampered with, but was it two hours or two months that had been erased? I could only guess, but one thing was for certain – meeting Uxie had now become my holy grail, or at least a major step towards the holy grail of returning to my home world, because ultimately, that's all that had really mattered to me ever since I became a snivy and wound up on this world. That being said, not everyone could go on this expedition – the guild were only picking members that they thought were suited, and things were already looking terrible for me, and perhaps to a slightly lesser extent, Serge. Thanks to Chimeco overhearing a sinister conversation between Team Skull and Loudred, it was clear they were trying to frame me to try and get me kicked out of the guild for racist and vengeful purposes. While I didn't get kicked out, I looked like a violent thug to Chatot, who looked more than happy to believe Team Skull's slander. As for Wigglytuff, who almost through the most terrifying rage I was ever about to experience, was strategically quelled and made happy by Skuntank, making me look like the asshole while he looked admirable. These tribulations, however, would not keep me down! From now on, I'd be doing these explorations with a smile on my face, and not lazing about, and do more than what is required. I'd show them I was worthy, and through that, I can meet Uxie, and discover the truth about myself. All this slaving away would hopefully finally pay of soon.

  
  


I woke up bright and early this morning, before Serge, and even Loudred. I had time to kill before the announcements, and as I strutted past the other rooms...

  
  


"Wow, I'm surprised all that cleaning didn't tire you out!" Loud called out to me as I walked by him. "And yet, you look as perky as you've ever been, not like you ever really have been looking happy. I really don't see why you were here – you clearly weren't enjoying exploring. It's too bad-"

  
  


"-That I was never kicked out of the guild?! Aye, I thought so! I know exactly what went on between you and Team Skull! I was set up, just so you could see this guild become 'pure' again, and so I wouldn't be strutting off home after accumulating some wealth here." Loudred looked taken aback – he knew what I said was true, but he was evidently completely puzzled of HOW I knew about his scheme.

  
  


"Well...It's not like anyone's going to believe you." He said, and just when he was about to smirk, I retorted, in the most snobby way I could imagine.

  
  


"Oh don't worry, Loudred, you can keep your underhand ways of trying to get me kicked from the guild. I will be the morally superior one and work hard honourably...whoops, was that a big word for you? I guess you wouldn't understand a word like that." I said, smirking smugly. Loudred clearly had a very short temper, and was a lot more irritable than anyone I knew back in the human world, and he was trying his best not to have an outburst. "And yes, Loudred, I do plan to move back home in a few months. Utterly disgraceful, isn't it." I continued, my grin widening as I saw him start to breathe deeply to control his temper.

  
  


"I do wish you the best of luck for being picked for the expedition!" I said, seeing others waking up, as I walked away and into the main area of the lowest floor, wanting to keep up my appearance of being a hard and dedicated explorer. Evidently, Loudred was trying to look good as well, and an outburst at me would have done him no favours in the eyes of Wigglytuff. Eventually, Loudred woke everyone up in his usual manner, and everyone came looking tired, though probably a bit more perky than usual. I clearly wasn't the only one excited about the expedition, even if I had more of a reason to be. I put my heart for the very first time into the morning words of encouragement, yelling 'SMILES GO FOR MILES' with passion. I had a new resolve now, and yet, it would seem like it was a rule of this world, that something will try and crush your good feelings as soon as you get them. This time, in the form of – you guessed it – Chatot.

  
  


"OK, you two do pick a job on the bulletin board as usual, and also, as far as the expedition goes...well...I can pretty much guarantee that Wigglytuff has ruled you out of taking you on the expedition for your disgusting behaviour yesterday." I couldn't hold it in this time, and I retorted.

  
  


"Only because you fell for the bullshit that Team Skull told you and Wigglytuff, which was convenient since I bet from day one you were looking for an actual excuse to hate me. They hoarded the apples, and threatened-"

  
  


"ENOUGH! Any more about this, and I'm extending your weeks punishment right up until the expedition! Not like you'll be going, or anything – violence towards guild allies...despicable! Now go, get out of my sight!" I so wanted to punch that bastard in the face. It was truly the first time I had a desire to be violent to someone without them being violent to me, or threatening me with violence, in a very, very long time. Was it the effects and violent lifestyle as a guild apprentice? Or was it just Chatot just getting under my skin that badly? That close minded fool!

  
  


Regardless, I didn't exactly have much room to call people close minded. There was a stage in my life where I just refused to befriend Arceists, since at the age of sixteen, my hatred for their religion was at its peak. While dampened, I still believed their religion was a plague to the planet, much like the other ones that did not exalt the true lord and world preserver, Dialga. I didn't hate members of other religions, but they were deluded fools – all of them. Perhaps I was hypocritical when I dubbed Chatot close minded, but with him talking trash and making me feel like shit this often, who could blame me? Not me in my eyes, at least. Nevertheless, my spirits weren't even dampened – I'd show Wigglytuff I was more than capable to go on this expedition. No holding back now, and no more holding back while giving Serge directions! It's time to be a front line commander and really get stuck in there myself! No more of me standing back and letting Serge do all the leg work! I was capable and agile, and throughout these next two weeks I would show it to every last person in the guild that I was more than ready for this expedition! Our first step? Doing two jobs in one day.

  
  


"Ok, Serge, looking at this map here, this is what I think we should do. Look at the job list – we can go straight to Conviction cave and rescue this buizel who clearly got injured while exploring inside – h probably didn't charge fast enough at running through the waterfall. Then we find this dawn jewel that this chikorita lost at the serenity river riverbank, which is what the river that flows over Conviction Cave becomes. Doing two jobs in a single day will really help us get in Wigglytuff's good books, so I'd say this is a good plan." I said to Serge, grinning. This seemed to make Serge look bewildered – after all, I was never this enthusiastic about exploring, but he understood my reasons.

  
  


"So, you see if you do find your way back to your own world...will that you be gone from this world forever?" He asked. This put me in a somewhat uncomfortable position, but I was going to be flat out honest – Dialga put a heavy insistence on being honest.

  
  


"Aye. There's truly nothing for me here – I belong in the human world, and before you say anything – I already gave you a head start on exploring." I said flatly, looking at him, and sighed "...You'd rather I stayed, at least for purely selfish reasons. Can't blame you too much, I'm a hard to replace guy!"

  
  


"I guess you could stay that. I mean, we work so well together, but I do understand." He said, but I could sense a bit of sadness in his voice. I was clearly a large part of success, and having me leave could hamper future ambitions, but I knew that I still helped him while I was here, so he couldn't complain too much. While it was going to upset him, I didn't really think I was screwing him over since I wasn't even supposed to be in this world anyway. After all, I'd make my family and friends happy to see that I am alive and well, which would vastly outweigh Serge's misfortunes, but even then, Serge was very capable – he could probably do just fine without me.

  
  


Neither of us mentioned a thing about it as we did as what planned – rescued the buizel, and got chikorita's lost dawn jewel. Even Chatot looked somewhat happy, but remarked 'trying to suck up to the guildmaster, eh?' as we walked back to our room, which dampened any real positive feelings. Outside of the dinner hall where we started cleaning the guild building, we heard some conversation over the fast eating of the meals. Something about some dusknoir explorer, and his supposed solo exploration feats, and considering that he had only been exploring for a mere week, it seemed like we had some competition for achieving ridiculously early exploration success . As per usual, we sneakily ate a meal that Chimeco had prepared for us in secret. It was very nice of her to risk this for us for sake of justice, and out health. She, along with Bidoof, Corphish and of course Serge were my good friends in the guild, and really helped me get by not being able to see my friends and family back home, even though I missed them more each and every day. Even after I'd leave this world, I think I'd remember them for a long time.

  
  


A week had passed, and there was no screw-ups from Team Conviction whatsoever. I believed I was proving Chatot wrong, and we even got encouraging words from the guildmaster himself, who didn't even mention the Team Skull/perfect apple incident ever since. We were clearly in his good books by now, which is what mattered about the expedition, as he was ultimately the one who had the final say on who goes and who stays, and not the bigoted Chatot. However, something happened today that was different – after the forbidden meal, and we continued to tidy the guild building, we heard a for boding yell.

  
  


"WHAT?!" No mistaking that squawking voice – it was Chatot. "Why did you make two meals more than you were supposed to?! Don't tell me – for Floyd and Serge! Trying to void their punishment, eh?!"

  
  


"I'm telling you, they were not the aggressors! I heard them talking about the trap with Loudred previously, and..." But Chimeco was cut short.

  
  


"Cut the lies already!" Chatot said, sounding like he was spitting when he said so. "You deliberately disobeyed an order from a superior! This shall be reported immediately to the guildmaster! You can pretty much kiss your chances of going on the expedition goodbye!" Chatot said and stormed out of the mess hall, and looked at us.

  
  


"As for you two – accepting the disallowed meals will extend the punishment right up until the expedition! Also, your cleaning jobs throughout the past week were terribly done! You call this clean?! I will put this forward to the guildmaster!" This time, however, I snapped.

  
  


"Ah, go fuck yourself!" I shouted at Chatot, seeing things weren't going to get any worse. Croagunk and Diglett stared at me for fairly obvious reasons. "I feel very sure that I was a native pokemon, or that you weren't so trustworthy of Team Skull, you'd think I was the finest new recruit!" Chatot looked like he was about to explode in anger, but I hadn't finished yet. "Oh, and by the way, when since do you strut around here acting like you're in charge?! Either you're just Wigglytuff's bitch, or you damn well control him by spewing your warped and outright bastard perceptions of what was going on here!" In the background, past the steaming Chatot, I could see Diglett gasp, Croagunk shrug, clearly not giving a damn, and Chimeco cheering, but not making any sound. Chatot didn't explode, but simple smiled cruelly.

  
  


"Get to your room, now..." He said and stormed into the guildmaster's room, where I heard him make up complete bullshit about how I faked a few missions, giving replicas of lost possessions to pokemon, how I was stealing perfect apples from the larder, and even saying that I was violent to Bidoof this evening, pointing out that he was injured badly from his job, even though he was successful and said to Chatot personally that he was ambushed by a few beedrill, and barely got away. Lying, slanderous cunt! At least I got a few encouraging words from Chimeco, Corphish and oddly enough Sunflora, who seemed to be on Chatot's good side, telling me that he had it coming for years. I did accept that it was probably a very bad thing to do, as this pretty much destroyed my chances of going on the expedition, but I just had to let it out of my system – I finally told what I thought the twat. I knew his cruel smile as a mask – I genuinely hurt him, and, as creepy as it was, it felt good to do so. Evidently, a sign I had stayed in this world too long – I needed out, and I probably sealed my fate in not going. It was a bitter-sweet victory, really, and rendered my very silent that night, giving one word responses to Serge's conversation.

  
  


As for the last week before the exploration, Chatot clearly found it hard to administer jobs to Team Conviction, only ever making eye contact with Serge. Perhaps it was the guilt of lying to his boss? Who knows, but I sure hoped it was the case. Today, I saw Zubat again, still looking a bit injured from when I squarely leaf bladed him in the apple woods. Think back, I kind of shuddered at the thought of it. It was a really vicious attack, and I had never injured anyone like that before in my entire life, and worst of all, I thought nothing of it at the time. I was still struggling to recognize myself by appearance, and now, even my character and personality was becoming less recognizable. I sadly looked at him and shook my head.

  
  


"Hey, Zubat...sorry for injuring you like that last week." I said, and watched his slightly surprised expression, though not really in a positive light. I scratched my head. "Really, I mean it – it's not just because I was asked to apologize. I didn't mean to bust up your wing that badly."

  
  


"Huh, such methods like yours are the norm here. I really should have saw this coming.” He said, gesturing to his wing. “However, next time, I guarantee that you'll be on the receiving end of good beating." He said to me, and I raised an eyebrow.

  
  


"You look surprised...I suggest you just go back to where you come from, even if you are as militant as the rest of us." Zubat said, and I looked back at him as he flew somewhat sloppily into the guild building.

  
  


I still tried my hardest to shine as an explorer in spite of everything thrown at me. Chatot was keeping such a close eye on myself and Serge while we were inside the guild, which made it impossible for Chimeco or anyone to sneak us food, and as a result, Serge and I had to take more food with us on the explorations. On a good day for this week, we sometimes did three tasks in a single trip, which attracted praise from Wigglytuff himself!

  
  


I felt myself becoming harder, and more resilient to the constant attacks from the wild pokemon. Well, not really, but I had very much mastered my energy absorption techniques now, so even moderate injuries could be completely healed over after latching onto the pokemon and draining it's strength until it almost passed out. It disturbed me, but it was still more humane than brutally giving it a deep cut with leaf blade I guess. Better inducing exhaustion into the aggressors than giving it a savage injury. Serge, however, was still the one warding off any possible assailants since none of my fighting techniques could come close to a solid blast of fire to the face, or a dangerous fireball-like charge. Not that it mattered too much to me, since we were kicking ass as a duo, and reaping the rewards. I had gotten used to the huge knock off of our pay, but we done so many jobs and tasks, it didn't feel like that at all. Surely, the guildmaster would see that we were more than worthy to come on the expedition. Upon four days until the exploration, Chatot was being even more of a bastard than usual.

  
  


"You're earlier back than usual – OK, you two, you have time to tidy up the upper quarters while everyone is getting our tasty dinner!" He said, sounding happy. He was tormenting me on purpose, and I let a scowl escape. Chatot was not happy when he noticed this.

  
  


"Any more words, or even a single gesture to me like that again and I will personally make sure that you are kicked out of the guild! Get upstairs, and out of my sight!" It's not like I could flip him off again – I knew now that Wigglytuff had little spine, and that he was border-lining on becoming Chatot's puppet. I did not doubt for a second that he could persuade him into kicking me from the guild, and if that were to happen, I'd be homeless, jobless and my chance to talk to Uxie would be gone. I grumbled when he was out of earshot.

  
  


"Floyd, could you wash the pillars? I can't climb up then." Serge said, passing me a wet cloth. "I bought us some food that isn't just the bare basics for once – thought we deserved something decent for once. We might as well eat it once we're done with the pillars and walls."

  
  


"Oh, excellent!" I said to him smiling. "I was getting tired of working my ass off and getting food that is barely passable." I didn't find the cleaning hard, but it was incredibly laborious, especially when working to Chatot's standards. He was so determined when it came to keeping the guild's prestige, that he demanded that the entire guild was cleaned top to bottom daily! We opened the bag and started eating a hot dog each, which was still better than the odd bit of either slightly unripe fruit, or, quite frankly, crap sandwiches that the kecleon brothers sloppily put together and sold. It somehow felt very satisfying eating it, but as we made our way downstairs after the top and middle floors had been cleaned, we heard Chatot's irritating irritated voice again.

  
  


"What's this?!" I heard him say, the voice coming in from the mess hall. My nosy nature got the better of me, and I immediately started to eavesdrop. "You get employed to cook food, and you only make twelve dinners, when there are thirteen of us eating? And of all the people who don't get a plate of food, it's me!"

  
  


"Perhaps, now you understand why food deprivation is a disgusting punishment! If I just left you without food like this, you'd be very weak by the morning!" It was Chimeco for sure.

  
  


"...It...was...on PURPOSE?!" Chatot yelled, making that strange squawking-spitting noise. "What is the meaning of this?! Right, that does it – you want to make only twelve dinners for the next few days? Fine, but you will be the one who will miss out on your meal! That's my final word!" He said and started storming out. "Oh, and after you wash up, you can make my dinner thank you very much! Unless you want the punishment extended beyond the expedition start date, of course." He said, and me and Serge quickly made ourselves look oblivious to the situation, and started cleaning up before Chatot saw us.

  
  


"Hm, I see you're already downstairs – keep at it, and don't be sloppy!" He ordered as he strutted off. I looked at him, and I just pictured myself crippling him with a leaf blade, much like what I did to zubat. If I didn't need him on side to an extent, I would happily do that – perhaps the event at Apple Woods was the excuse he was looking for to hate me and went gun-ho and capitalised the living crap out of it.

  
  


Later that night, I was taking a stroll by myself in treasure town, since I often found it a stress-reliever from even Chatot's presence, let alone his ordering. I was stretching my arms and tail, trying to wring out any negativity, which while it wasn't quite working, did at least make things a wee bit better. At that point, however, I heard a familiar voice...

  
  


"Hey hey...life in the guild? Been good for the most part." It was Corphish, no doubt about it. There was no mistaking his distinctive voice, and his constantly repeated 'hey hey,' which made me wonder if it was an outright verbal tick or not. "Yeah, the new guys are just as nice as normal. Bidoof, a cyndaquil called Serge who insists on being called by his birth name, and a snivy of all things, called Floyd – didn't expect to see a foreigner join." I had no idea who he was talking to, but I really couldn't help but be curious, so I continued to listen in.

  
  


"Are you sure he's safe?!" A hurried, older voice said "I mean..."

  
  


"Hey hey, don't jump to conclusions like that, he's a swell guy! Chatot on the other hand...what an asshole! Wish Wigglytuff would fire him already!"

  
  


"Language, Corphish!" A female voice said. I decided to act casual and walk by, pretending not to notice.

  
  


"Aw come on mum, I'm sixteen!" Corphish complained "Anyway, he always treated us like cr...dirt, and now, he's getting even worse for it...Oh, hey Floyd!" He said, calling over to me.

  
  


"Come back me up here – explain to my parents why Chatot is such an...a horrible person." He said as I slowly walked over. There were two crawdaunt there, obviously his parents.

  
  


"Oh hi there." The father said. "You one of Corphish's friends then?"

  
  


"Oh aye." I said, I held out my hand for a second to shake in a friendly gesture, but saw that it wasn't a good idea. "Heh. sorry, probably not the best idea, due to your claws."

  
  


"Ah, it's ok." Corphish's dad said and chuckled. "So is my son blowing the whole Chatot ordeal out of proportion or..."

  
  


"I can't say I like him either. I mean, he's outright horrible towards me, and falsely accuses me for all kinda of stuff I haven't done."

  
  


"That's absolutely true." Corphish said and nodded.

  
  


"He can't be that bad surely, for the second in command of such a prestigious guild." The mother said. "Well, Floyd, we were just seeing how our son was doing at the guild – it's been about half a year since he joined, and seems to be doing very well, and how about you?"

  
  


"Hehe, well, I would say that I've been successful, though I've probably haven't been enjoying it as much as Corphish though."

  
  


"Due to Chatot?"

  
  


"Well, I was kind of recruited by a friend I met when I came here, Serge. I had no interest in exploring before hand, but it was a good employment opportunity, and I seem to be doing well – it's grown on me recently as well. But yeah, Chatot doesn't help."

  
  


"Well, it is known to be a strict guild." The father said, rubbing his claws together. "We were really reluctant to let Corphish join at first. We admit that we didn't have faith that he'd do well or like it, but we were very wrong. Well, we're heading off now, it's late – we'll see you soon Corphish." They said and walked off together. Corphish and I walked back inside the guild, and soon went to bed, tiredness starting to set in earlier each day.

  
  


The remaining days up to the selection just got more and more tense. Every day felt like by blood was flowing that bit faster overall, and I was becoming more prone to spontaneous flinching. I was pretty bad for flinching at shadows, but this was worse than normal. In spite of me being more on the edge each, I never burst out at Chatot again. I kept my head down, just hoping that Wigglytuff would either see past Chatot's bullshit, or forgive it. Everyone was talking less, clearly trying to look good, or to impress Wigglytuff by seeming like diligent workers. I was no different, nor was Serge for that matter. The others were now doing multiple jobs in a day as well, clearly seeing that it would impress the guildmaster – I was sure hoping that they weren't as determined as I was, but I was wrong. In spite of my incredibly strong reason to go, it didn't seem like I was showing any more effort than the others.

  
  


"We done the best we could of really." I said to Serge, as we lied down in our beds at the night before the selection. "Aside from me snapping at Chatot and accepting food we weren't supposed to have, I don't think we could have done things better in all honesty."

  
  


"Yeah, and besides, it's not like our faults were to do with the exploring itself. We're bound to be picked, and maybe you'll find the answers you're looking for is Uxie really is there..." He said, a hint of sadness leaking from his voice. From his selfish perspective, he wanted to me to stay as his exploration partner, and as cocky as it seemed, I didn't exactly blame him for it. I guess I really did kick start his successful career as an explorer, but I could tell that he was also trying to help me. After all, it was only from his selfish perspective and not his utilitarian viewpoint, and he did divert me from being homeless, and helped give me at least some sense of hope.

  
  


Sleep that night? Nigh on impossible. Matter of fact, I eventually stole one of Serge's sleep seeds in order to quickly put myself to sleep – was I bit of a jerk? Yeah, probably, but I didn't think much of it at the time. I felt my consciousness slip away as the seed took effect, and all the tension in my body melted away as my eyes shut, and my whole body felt very relaxed, as sleep came.

  
  


Loudred knew his usual waking-everyone-up duties weren't necessary this morning – matter of fact, he was the last one up, since he felt cocky enough that he'd be picked for sure. We all sat in the main hall, not speaking much at all, only exchanging the occasional low murmur to each other, and even that was very sporadic.

  
  


"Hey, think you're getting picked?" Corphish said to me, who wasn't quite as quiet as the others. I inhaled slightly, and responded vaguely.

  
  


"...Yeah...yeah, I think I will..." I said, not moving my head. I was looking blankly, and yet lazily at the door of Wigglytuff's office. I could hear very quiet talk between him and Chatot – no doubt, they were finalising their decisions. Returning to my home word or being doomed to stay here for the rest of my life could very well depend on this. I drummed my fingers on the floor nervously, when suddenly Wigglytuff burst from his office.

  
  


"EXPEDITION!" He yelled and suddenly ran outside of the building and out of sight, carrying a huge bag. Chatot walked out of the office in the opposite fashion – calmly, slowly, and seriously.

  
  


"...He is rather lively!" He said, looking cheery for a second. "Ok, we have made our decisions, but I will first briefly announce what will happen." He said, and took a look at his papers, muttering to himself. "For all those that have been selected to come, you will get ready immediately, and we are due to head off to where Fogbound Lake is, or supposedly is at least, in two hours – we shall meet at the watering hole outside of the guild. The guildmaster and I will be getting the extra materials, such as tents, and we will ask those that are coming to share the load. Also, we will be goin..." he was however cut off by an impatient Corphish then.

  
  


"Who's picked, who got selected?!" He said, evidently, he was holding it in before, but lost it. Chatot looked very irritated, almost snapping at Corphish.

  
  


"Shortly, Corphish! Quiet!" He said loudly, grumbled, and continued to speak. "As I said, in three different groups, so we do not get slowed down too much. As Wigglytuff and I will be the fastest there, we will be setting up the tents in time for everyone else's arrival." He looked at us all straightly. "...You just want me to tell who's coming...very well..." He said. No one in the guild was making a sound, not even a little shuffle, no heavy breathing. Just dead silence, which made the air in the guild very still. Chatot coughed, which made everyone inhale inaudibly.

  
  


"Wigglytuff and I, obviously, as well as Team Skull...and, this explorer, is quite possibly our most talented student...Sunflora!" He said, but was cut short by a very lively living sunflower who screamed in delight.

  
  


"Oh my gosh, oh my sweet gosh, YES!" She yelled and ran outside of the building. Chatot looked around after her.

  
  


"Just you go and get ready!" He said after her. "Anyway..." He said, and the still, tense air returned "This one, though a very clinical approach to exploring, he's proved that while he's unnoticed to some, a very talented explorer...Croagunk!" There was not much of a reaction from him, aside from himself saying:

  
  


"...Cool..." He stretched his arms, and although he didn't seem that excited, he evidently seemed pleased with himself. Chatot coughed again, and looked at his papers.

  
  


"A younger one this time – an extremely diligent worker and explorer...Diglett" Chatot announced, and Diglett's eyes widened in surprise and happiness.

  
  


"Dad! I did it!" He said, in a higher pitched voice than usual "Is my dad coming as well?" He asked Chatot almost immediately, who smiled back and said.

  
  


"Yes, Dugtrio has also proved himself worthy." He said and nodded.

  
  


"Ah, this couldn't get any better – father and son on an adventure of our lives!" Dugtrio said proudly "I've been waiting for this moment when we both signed up at the guild." We had no idea how many would be picked – no limit was ever mentioned to us, but we had no idea if there was one discussed behind closed doors. Chatot inhaled, and announced the next chosen explorer.

  
  


"Um...not expected at all by my standards, but who am I to question the guildmaster's judgements? Although, he has worked his fur off very hard lately, and has made dramatic improvements over the last week..." Oh, this had to be me for sure – after all, I had been working double time since the revelation that it could lead to my way home, and what did I hear? The only word that put me off was 'fur', and sadly, that suspicion turned out to be correct.

  
  


"Bidoof!" Chatot announced, pointing to him as best as he could with his wing. Bidoof was so welled up with happiness and surprise, that he let tears of joy roll down his face gently, and promptly hugged Corphish, much to his surprise.

  
  


"I...oh...I never thought this would happen!" He said, struggling to form the words as he spoke words of rather confused joy. "I did it!"

  
  


"Indeed you have Bidoof! Now, why don't you calm down a bit, and go and get ready." Chatot said warmly, and Bidoof slowly walked out of the guild building, clearly trying to hold back the tears. That was now half of us now, and the remaining five had no idea if that was it, or there was more to come. The air got even thicker with tension, and all of us were apprehensive, aside from Loudred – he looked fed up.

  
  


"Listen, Chatot, I'm obviously one of the better explorers here. Just get it over with – I'm going, right?" Loudred said, sounding extremely cocky. Chatot seemed to sigh and grunt at the same time, and simply said.

  
  


"Yes, you've been picked. Well done, but less of your cheek!" Loudred just chanted some sort of victory theme as he stomped happily outside of the building, clearly, very happy with himself. This left us with four left, and Chatot didn't looked finished quite let.

  
  


"This explorer, has been working overtime recently, and has actually done more jobs than anyone else throughout the past fortnight..." OK, now thus was me for sure this time, or at least Serge. I inhaled, as I waited for the announcement. "Very new to the guild, but, the occasional screw-up and questionable choice of allies aside, he has had a large amount of successes ever since he joined...Serge!" I heard Serge exhale loudly, looked relieved, and he seemed to cheer silently, thrusting one arm in the air. I patted him on the back, congratulating him.

  
  


"Outstanding!" I said happily for him, patting his back.

  
  


"Oh, yeah, and you're pretty much going for sure now – my successes are your successes!" Serge said happily back, looking very, very pleased. I turned to look at Chatot expectantly, and heard, watched, and felt him say...

  
  


"And as for you three..." I didn't need to hear any more – it was him saying that myself, Chimeco and Corphish were turned down. I caught on quite a bit quicker than the others. I felt disappointment and anger surge through every fibre of my body, and It had to be let out.

  
  


"FUCK! FUCK!" I screamed, and stormed towards my room, and then back towards a not-very-surprised looking Chatot. "What the fuck do I not have that Serge does?! Answer me you piece of shit!" I yelled, saliva going from my mouth and spraying on Chatot. Chatot wiped my spit off his face, and responded, surprisingly calmly.

  
  


"If I wasn't so gleeful about going on an expedition, I would punish you to solely doing guild maintenance for a whole month. But that aside, you simply did not do nearly as much fighting as Serge, and he has proved himself to be far better at defending himself." Chatot responded formally. I wasn't too impressed, however.

  
  


"That's because I was the strategy man of our two man team! You think that Serge would have made it anywhere without me?! And weren't you the one who took a very strategical and methodical approach to exploring?! You can't simply not have me go, I'm far too valuable to this guild!"

  
  


"That's true, but it's me and the guildmaster who will be doing that. I will say that you are good at approaching hostile situations with caution, and plan of how you take down enemies, but it's the guildmaster and myself that will be doing that , we aren't in need of such skills. Your other traits, such as fighting ability, speed of doing the tasks, and general common sense of the land just doesn't match up to what we need. Sorry, Snivy, but you're staying behind with Chimeco and Corphish." I was crushed. No wait, that was an understatement. I was devastated – of all my efforts had amounted to nothing. Now there was no chance of seeing Uxie, and a key hope – pretty much the only hope I knew about that could possibly lead to myself finding the answers and returning home – had been shattered right in front of my eyes. I sighed miserably, and returned to my room. I had no intentions of doing any job for that day, whether Chatot asked me to or not. I fell on top of my pile of straw – not my bed – bed was too good a term to describe it, and exhaled miserably. At least nobody was there to mock me for being rejected...

  
  


The rest of the day, at least after I got out of bed again, was between me and the two others, bantering about the guild's decision to not take them.

  
  


"It's bullshit, I tell you – I mean, no offence to Bidoof, but I am just a better explorer than him. He worked extremely hard and did make a massive improvement...but that didn't actually make him very good. Bottom line is, if he was accepted, I should have been accepted – I don't see what the he has that I don't. Same goes for you, Floyd, you downright outclass him." Corphish ranted on and on, storming about the main hall.

  
  


"No – I'm just a strategy man, and apparently, that counts for nothing in the expedition." I said grumpily. Chimeco then chimed in.

  
  


"Apparently, my cooking and convenience skills aren't required either. According for them, they 'can manage for a few days without me. They also told me that I never did enough job notice board jobs – kind of hard to do when you cook, and act as a receptionist for most of the day!" She shook her head sadly. "Ah, they'll have fun, at least..." She said, but everything in her voice told me that she wanted to be with them on the expedition. As for me, I only really cared about finding Uxie. I swallowed, and told myself that it was just a vague rumour. He probably isn't even there, if he even exists...

  
  


Chimeco cooked us a meal that evening, which was of purposely high standard to help ease the pain of being rejected. We solemnly ate it, not speaking much, and merely exchanging the occasional word to each other, and stooped low enough to talk about the weather – clearly, a sign that we were desperate to make conversation, but we were failing utterly. I eventually returned to my room, after having a drink with Corphish in the Spinda Coffee Shop. We did not mention the expedition whatsoever, and we were both very thankful nobody asked about it, but we had a feeling they already knew, and didn't ask us about it out of respect. It was almost midnight, Sunday evening – this would have been another church service I would be forced to miss. I longed to go to them again, and to help connect with my lord, but a prayer would have to suffice.

  
  


"Dialga...you may be a bit bored of me exalting you every prayer, so I'll just get it over quickly with now – thanks for keeping the world's time in order and the like but...I feel as though injustice as been done to me. It seems to dully burn my veins and makes me feel heavy with sadness and anger. I want to avoid such emotions, but I feel lost without the righteous book as my guide. I want to apologize if I am straying from it's teachings, but it is hard to do so without the book by my side as a guide, and I pray and plead that you can forgive me for this. That being said I want to ask one thing – what do you think I should do now? I know it's bad for everyone for me to take this lying down, but I am not sure how to solve things now. The guild are already on their way to the lake, and it's not like I can ask for a fair judgement now, so please, give me some guidance, righteous one..." I said, and lay down on the bed, which was as uncomfortable as usual. I looked at the empty bed, where Serge would usually be.

  
  


I hoped that he was thorough good time on the expedition so far, but thinking about him only made me even more bitter at what has been done to me. I was just as capable as he was, and I was probably a better explorer than Bidoof and Diglett! Why the fuck should I stay here?! Who gives a shit about what Chatot said – if I am capable of going, then I will go! Dialgans like myself believe that if someone wrongs you, you should wrong them back, but make sure it's not as bad as what they done to you, thus teaching them a lesson while retaining the moral high ground. The continued snubbing of his authority would be my retribution! The Kecleon Shop is usually open twenty-four-seven, I should be able to get what I need, and hopefully reach the base camp tomorrow evening. I knew exactly where it was due to be, looking at my map – the exploring of fogbound lake wouldn't start until the day after, and I doubted they'd just send me back after walking all that way. My resolve returned as I marched out of my room, and into the hall, when I saw...

  
  


"Corphish?! Are you...getting out of here?!" I said to a shifty looking Corphish, with a full bag on his back.

  
  


"I'm going on the expedition, screw what Chatot says! I don't want to be left and be the laughing stock of the guild when they return!" Corphish continued to rant, and I agreed with him.

  
  


"Great minds think alike – I had exactly the same intentions. We should be able to get to base camp by tomorrow evening if we don't get delayed en route too much" I said, but out loud chatter must have woke up Chimeco. She had been in the guild for several years, and was unofficially put in charge of the guild while the expedition was on.

  
  


"You two...why are you awake?" She asked. I doubt we could lie about it, so I straight up told her the truth – honesty was seen as a very important virtue in the eyes of a Dialgan, though thinking this made me feel guilty for all the times I abused the loophole.

  
  


"We are going on the expedition – we're just as, if not more capable than some who got picked." I said bluntly. "And it's not like they'd send us back, after all. I can't imagine them stooping that low." Her eyes widened in surprise, and said...

  
  


"...Bloody good idea, I'm going with you! I'll lock up the guild just before we leave." She said, sounding like she really liked our idea. I guess this would start this forbidden adventure I was going on. Could I have made it there alone? To be honest, I doubted that, but I had two good friends who were efficient explorers with me. My hopes for finding Uxie were certainly not gone, and were now stronger than ever. I was bound to at least make it to the main camp site. Grins spread across all our faces, as we head out of the guild building, and we turned to one another.

  
  


"Hey hey, this is more thrilling than expected. I mean, we're breaking the guild rules at the same time, and for some reason, it just makes things more exciting, hey!" Corphish said enthusiastically.

  
  


"I wonder how they'll react to us showing up?" Chimeco asked.

  
  


"Oh, I don't think they'll be too happy, but it doesn't matter." I said, smiling broadly. "I know this will look really cheesy right now, but I have to let it out of my system." I said, spun around on the spot, until I was facing the direction of where the main camp would be, just past a series of mountains, and pointed.

  
  


"To Fogbound Lake!"

 


	7. The Illegal Adventure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Screw the rules, Floyd, Chimeco and Corphish are going anyway! All three of them highly driven to catch up with the rest of the guild, dangers and threats be dammed!

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

  
  


Chapter 7: The Illegal Adventure

  
  


  
  


I didn't give two shits about what Chatot and Wigglytuff decided about who goes and who gets left behind – I'm going on the expedition whether they like it or not! The expedition meant pretty much everything to me, though for a very different reason from everyone else. They were after the excitement and glory of hoping to find a hidden place that may or may not even exist, and the treasure, wealth, and riches that might be found there. As for me, I was chasing the rumours say that a pokemon known as Uxie lives in and around the like, and has the power to wipe memories.

  
  


He, according to the false religion of Arceism, is known as the being of knowledge, and for probably the first time in my life, I prayed that they were right. Perhaps this pokemon knows all, and, due to the fact that I must have got some sort of amnesia, would it be too much to assume that he had something to do with it. The answers had to lie with him somehow – the answers to exactly what happened to me, and how to get back to my own world, where my friends, family, and humanity's creature comforts were. Before all that, however, I had to actually get there. Fortunately, the other two who were rejected were also refusing to stay at the guild. Corphish and Chimeco were also pretty furious about not being allowed to go, but we didn't care if we weren't allowed – we were going!

  
  


"Gah, we'll just wake the Kecleon brothers – as long as they receive cash, they'd do anything." Corphish said. "Hey hey, I bet they'd even screw the other one over to get a mere grand!"

  
  


"They would never do that!" Chimeco said hotly. "They're very nice people, and they're not that money hungry...as money hungry as they are...look, they clearly very close to each other!" She said, sounding somewhat uncertain as we approached their shop, and Corphish knocked loudly on the door.

  
  


"We've come to buy supplies!" He said loudly. There was shuffling and grumbling from inside, and it sounds like the two of them were talking.

  
  


"You get it...I was up until half twelve last night sorting stock..." One of them said. More shuffling and footsteps, and out from the door came a very tired looking purple-red kecleon.

  
  


"Ok...I'll serve you...just give me a moment..." He said, staggering a bit from the tiredness as he went to the counter. "So, what will it be? Please, do make it quick, I'm gagging for sleep..." He seemed to be struggling to stay awake.

  
  


"I'll let you two judge what we need for all three of us, and I'll chip in a third of what it comes to." I said, taking a step back from the counter. Being the least experienced of the three, I thought the decisions were better left to them.

  
  


"Granted, you have only been doing this for a month, and have never been on explorations that last a few hours. Hey hey, pay attention when we order – as a more experienced explorer, I feel as though I should be showing you how it's done." He said, in a rather cocky tone. Chimeco wasn't too impressed.

  
  


"Now now, he's perfectly capable!" Chimeco said, and then looked round at the Kecleon, who was half asleep. "Oh, sorry, we'll buy things now..." She said, and started naming things in rather large quantities, Corphish protesting at the occasional item, but complained a lot more about the quantity, and I couldn't blame him too much – this would cost quite a pretty penny. Fifteen oran berries?! We would surely be fine with just three each.

  
  


"Now, I'm not taking any chances, and you will pay your third of the deal whether you like it or not!" She said sternly to Corphish. I ended up having to pay three thousand poke – almost half of Team Conviction's current funds. As slimy as that may have seemed, I deemed it a necessity, and I'm sure Serge would understand. I found myself with a backpack, utterly filled to the brim with supplies, including food and water-skins to last me the journey. I didn't really think that I'd need the oran berries under most circumstances, but they do make you feel more awake. I had only been awake for a total of fifteen hours, and I'd probably be up for at least another twenty before reaching our destination. It would be a very long trip, and in order to catch up, we couldn't afford to rest.

  
  


"OK guys, now I trust you know the landscape a lot better than I do. I know where we're going, but I don't know the ideal route...I mean, I'm guessing it will take almost a whole day, but..." I said, mumbling my words as I looked at my map.

  
  


"Well, my good friend, I would suggest we cut right through the mountains." Corphish said suddenly, but Chimeco looked like she was about to protest.

  
  


"We'd be slowed down too much!" She said hotly. "If we go around them, it'll be flat, easy going all the way – that's the way the guild took." Corphish waved his claws in front of her, clearly trying to get her full attention – either that, or he was getting flustered.

  
  


"Hey hey, use your brain, woman! If we go around the long way, the expedition would have already led them away from the main camp site by the time we get there!" He said, looking sternly at her, and took his map out. "It's simple! We walk right over here by the river – flat, easy going, and very few aggressive pokemon. We probably won't bump into any trouble that'll slow us down." He said, stroking his closed claw along the map, 'drawing out' where they would go. "Then, we go by the cliff-side coast, which saves us having to walk around the huge lake. That would probably cost us almost three hours." Chimeco interrupted again.

  
  


"The craggy coast? You sure? I mean, not many people go there. It's not reported to be too dangerous, but there haven't been to many reports about how dangerous the place is. Are you sure?" She said, and to be honest, I wasn't too comfortable with the idea of going through some fairly unexplored territory for a mere short cut.

  
  


"Do you want to make it there in time or not? Thought so." Corphish said brashly. "Now, after we go past there, which means it should be about midday if we move quickly, we have the mountains to pass through. Now, going between them would take too long, as we would be zigzagging through them for, I dunno, almost a whole day. I say we just go for broke and go right over Mount Horn." Chimeco seemed to vibrate as she hovered in the air with disapproval.

  
  


"Mount Horn?! What are you trying to prove! Haven't you heard it's heavily populated with aerodactyls, who probably think we, or maybe just you two, or perhaps even just you, Corphish, would make a good meal?! I don't know about you, but I know the risks – many explorers have died while exploring, and I am not going to join them in death!" She said, looking revolted at the mere suggestion, and she wasn't the only one who looked frustrated, and Corphish started to retaliate.

  
  


"You went deep into the amp plains to rescue some growlithe who was taken by some group of savage luxray, who intended to kill and eat him brutally – and you did that alone! Really, I'm sure if you did that then going up and over Mount Horn should be nothing, especially when we've got your back, right Floyd?" He said, shifting his eyes to look at me, without moving his body at all. I nodded slightly, honestly having no idea what they were on about, but it seemed like the decision was settled – walk by the wide river to the coast, walk by the cliffs, and over Mount Horn.

  
  


It seemed fairly straight forward in terms of navigation, but, well, I knew it was going to be dangerous. I didn't like the idea of being aerodactyl food myself, but it wasn't like it was the first time I was risking my life here. I was a trained explorer, and while I could defend myself fairly well, this was different. Serge wasn't here this time, and just thinking about the road ahead of us, it made me realise just how much I missed him. He could have lit the way clearly from walking by the river bank among other things. I kept stepping in muddy patches, which irritated me to no end.

  
  


"Aw for fuck's sake!" I said loudly when I stepped in the mud for about the seventeenth time that hour. Indeed, Corphish was right – there weren't any real threats here, but walking like this in the dark wasn't really my thing at all. Not that I was scared of the dark, but I was always concerned about bumping into, or stepping on things that I didn't want to step on. It took me back to my childhood as I remembered yelping in pain whenever I accidentally stood on a toy I left in the room. I would wake up and often step on it on the way to turning on the light. It reminded me of my human life once again, and I realised what was at stake – I had no time to worry about petty little things such as getting my feet dirty. I looked ahead into the darkness, following the sound of the flowing river as my guide. Chimeco yawned from behind.

  
  


"Ugh...I'm tired, I'll get an oran berry..." She said, taking one out of her bag via telekinesis. As for me I was, oddly enough, feeling sleepy as well. Back in my human life, I was a complete and utter late night addict, staying up to on average, four o'clock in the morning, but all this guild work strangled the light night addiction right out of me. I could use a nice cosy bed right now, but an oran berry for myself would have to do. I ate one of mine, and slowly started feeling more awake as we continued to trudge by the river. The strange thing was, that the berry seemed to fill me with a feeling of true energy, rather than an an artificial-like burst of energy like coffee would give. It was a very satisfying feeling, I had to admit. However, I was suddenly feeling hungry, the sun's absence seemed to make me feel more droopy than normal, as my hunger for sunlight seemed to convert into hunger for more food than normal. I immediately got a sandwich out of my bag, which very slightly squashed, but it was certainly edible.

  
  


"You eating already? Jeez, I'm surprised you're not fat if you eat that much." Corphish said. evidently, our eyes were getting used to the night now, since I was about ten meters away, and he could see what I was doing.

  
  


"Well" I said, my mouth stuffed full with the sandwich, so it was almost impossible to understand me. "Some species of pokemon, such as myself get energy from sunlight – if there is no sun out, we need to stuff our faces with food. Ever noticed that during most days I only need one meal a day? It's called photosynthesis, in case you didn't know." I said while swallowing what I had chewed in my mouth. I'm not sure if he understood a word I said, but I wasn't really too bothered.

  
  


There was only the very occasional breath of wind now and then, and it seemed to smell salty, so we must be close to the coast by now. The river had become so slow that you couldn't hear it flowing at all, and the trees to our right had started growing sparse. It was still very dark however, even though we had been walking for almost five hours straight with no real break. I guess, I realised how fit all this exploration had made me – I was no couch potato as a human, but my legs didn't feel remotely sore, even while carrying a rather heavy bag. I guess this incredibly high-active job was doing a lot of favours for my health and fitness, minus the injuries I received while doing so if course. Too bad I can't make any insurance claims in this world.

  
  


"Hey, Floyd." Chimeco said from behind me. "What was your place like? Y'know, before you moved to Treasure Town." I hoped to the high heavens I wouldn't be asked this again, and like a politician, I tried dodging the question.

  
  


"Now that question gets boring from time to time, you tell me about where you came from?" I said calmly, hoping that she'd accept this script-flipping.

  
  


"Me? I came from slightly further afield than the others – I actually lived closer to Chaud Town than treasure town, almost right in the middle of the continent. A very peaceful little village, it was, and to be honest, it was too peaceful for my liking. Like most of the others who come here, I came to the guild because I craved adventure. I wanted to come when the guild was first set up, but I had to wait for a few years."

  
  


"My parents were appalled by the idea of doing such a dangerous job, so I had to wait until I was twenty before they'd let me sign up. Living there feels like you're being wrapped in cotton wool at all times, it was a nightmare! I calmed down after the first couple of years of pure exploring, since I found greater and safer work being the guild chef for a lot of the time, but I still do manage the occasional exploration." I personally found this all very interesting. These pokemon, they weren't very different at all from humans in many ways. Why, all these stories sounded like people joining the military and other high-commitment and active jobs.

  
  


"Say...why are people not called by their birth names here? Seems a bit impersonal since we've known each other for a few weeks now." I asked, and both Corphish and Chimeco looked very surprised to hear me ask that. "I mean, I'm calling you by your species or race or whatever, and it seems outright rude to me now."

  
  


"Well, I come from very near Treasure Town, and having names is seen as inefficient in these parts. Treasure Town, as you may have guessed, is very much revolved around exploration, and it's just far easier if we call each other by our species in these parts – saves having to learn names. I was never even given one." Corphish explained, but I still wasn't too happy about this. In fact, I thought this was disgraceful, but he didn't look remotely sad about it.

  
  


"Even for the non explorers who work around Treasure Town are never referred by names, but we decided not to push it on visitors from far away such as yourself. Those from the other side of the continent tend to follow suit as well, but you get the off person who insists on being called by their birth name, such as Serge." Corphish said. "I mean, you're obviously from way across the sea, different culture and stuff. Don't see how it's rude calling you 'Snivy' but hey, I know nothing about where you're from." I shook my head at this.

  
  


"Yes, I was given a name at birth, I would much rather I was called that." I said, before eating my second oran berry. The sky no longer seemed pitch black anymore, telling me that morning was clearly on it's way, and in spite of all this walking, I had plenty of energy left in me to fight, should we encounter aggressive pokemon through the day.

  
  


"Right on schedule! Get the map, Floyd." I quickly got it out of my bag, and Corphish took it from me and pointed. "We should be about here. Now, we need to turn in this direction – we're taking a cliff side walk here, and in theory, we should reach the base of mount horn by midday. Well, if you two aren't exhausted, which you shouldn't be, lets go right away!" He said, walking towards the cliff side. He really did think he was in charge, but he was more experienced than I was. He got us this far, and I trusted his judgement. I looked at the dull red on the brim of the horizon, which looked very pretty by the mouth of the river, and inspired hope that we could get there in good time. I did wonder, however, if that was even the sun at all. Must be some other star, but it didn't matter, as it served the same purpose. It gave light to us all, and energy to plants, and thus provided food for everything else. Being a half-plant myself, it did both at the same time, making me feel extra grateful for its existence.

  
  


"Coming, Floyd?" Chimeco said. I turned my head and nodded. Indeed, Corphish was definitely asserting himself as leader now, but to be honest, he seemed like he was in his element here. The sea spray was irritating, especially with the sudden gusts of wind that now accompanied the morning sun. The leaf on my head and tail seemed to automatically face the sun, clearly trying to absorb as much sunlight as possible. The cliff sides were dull, drab and wet from the sea spray, and from the occasional splashes of water from rough waves during high tides. The general connotations of the dubbed 'craggy coast' never had positive connotations to me, but this place just felt uncomfortable to be in. One sea spray came in the form of an oddly violent gust, which seemed to shake up Chimeco by quite a bit.

  
  


"You know, Corphish, you could have picked a route that would be good for us as well. I mean, I know you don't mind the sea spray, but you really should have thought of us too!" She complained.

  
  


"Hey hey, quit yer moaning already! I said I'd take us through the most efficient, quickest route." Corphish responded, keeping his eyes firmly on the road ahead.

  
  


"Oh, easy for you to say, considering you don't mind all this damn sea spray!" She vented. "Oh by the way, there's a krabby, about fifty meters ahead. It doesn't look too dangerous, certainly not aggressive, it shouldn't..."

  
  


"Oh, I'll kick it's ass!" Corphish said an ran right at the krabby, with surprising speed. The krabby looked at him and looked shocked, as it immediately received what seemed like a rapid fire of pale bullets from his right claw, using it as if it were some kind of uzi or other rapid-fire firearm. It was helplessly knocked back as Corphish leaped in the air and crashed down with both claws and slammed them on the krabby's head. It didn't stand a chance, and was helplessly knocked cold. "How's that?!" Corphish said and stood in a victory pose, but Chimeco wasn't impressed.

  
  


"Look, that wasn't necessary – he clearly wasn't a threat. We're explorers, not straight up fighters." Chimeco chastised with disapproval. "Yes, you're a good fighter, but please, restrain yourself unless we have to...that was brutal!"

  
  


"Sorry Corphish, but I'm siding with Chimeco here – unnecessary violence, really." I said, shaking my head in disapproval.

  
  


"Hippies...you always side with Chimeco, Floyd!" Corphish moaned back. They were good for direction and combat, or at least Corphish was, but putting up with their constant bickering was I could do without. The sun continued to rise slowly as we trudged our way through the craggy coast, it's beams of light colliding weakly into us. Unfortunately, I didn't feel much warmth with it over the blasted sea spray. The oran berry that I ate even felt salty to the taste, and unfortunately, I had only two left now. They would have to do until at least Mount Horn.

  
  


I tried keeping my backpack away from the wind blowing in from the see to try and stop the spray from dampening my bag. I felt hungry for more sandwiches, but if they were going to be contaminated with salt when I brought them out of the bag, then I'd say it was better just waiting for the wind to die down. This was a lot harder going than before, having to step on and around sharp rock, but it was fine for Chimeco and Corphish, who could levitate or had tough skin respectively. I missed my shoes dearly as I carefully stepped around the rougher rocks. I had no protection against getting my feet cut to pieces, but I had learned throughout my explorations to avoid this well, and the soles of my feet had become fairly tough as a result of all the barefoot walking.

  
  


"Stop being so slow, Floyd!" Chimeco said and giggled slightly. Easy for her to say, hovering over everything like that. Two wingulls flew overhead, screeching audibly. They sounded obnoxious, yet it was a nice change from Corphish's whining and bragging. More sharp rocks, more sea spray, mounting hunger, more unpleasant sound coming from many sources...I really hated this place, and I hoped I'd never have to come back here. I took a swig from one of my water skins, being careful to minimize the amount of salt that went in my mouth, before I saw a couple of spheals rolling about twenty meters to the side of me. Such funny creatures – they always amused me when David Attenborough briefly featured them on their rolling behaviours on the older nature documentaries. Never remembered why the did that though – easier ground movement, perhaps? Not that it mattered too much right now. A sealeo accompanied them, which I assumed must be their big brother – an angry big brother at that, and he didn't look remotely pleased to see us.

  
  


"Corphish, compose yourself..." I said in a quiet murmur to him. He looked like he was spoiling for yet another fight, as did the sealeo, and even the pair of spheal looked potentially hostile. "Ok, we just go a way around them, we can avoid this." I said quietly again, nudging Corphish the direction I suggested to him. He didn't budge though, and had both claws at the ready. I sighed, seeing that we wouldn't be getting out of this with at least some severe exertion at best.

  
  


"Floyd, if there was one thing I learned throughout my exploration experiences...never let any threats strike first!" He said, open both claws and shot two streams of the strange bullet-like bubbles at both spheals, and charged forward with a fairly young, but vicious battle-cry.

  
  


"Wait, wh...we'd better help him Floyd." Chimeco said, and yet, she stayed back. I never at all thought she would be a physical fighter for a split second, but I was curious to know what she was thinking. I, however, looked right at the sealeo, and ran towards it at an odd angle, to make sure that both Corphish and I couldn't get hit by the same attack. I would be fine, but I wasn't too sure about Corphish since its attention was purely focused on my lobster-like ally, possibly being infuriated by Corphish attacking its younger brothers. Corphish suddenly slowed down and became more cautious, but no amount of caution would have saved him from a very fast and dangerous pale blue beam fired from its mouth. Even though I was a few meters away from it, I felt a sudden chill in the air from it, as if the beam itself carried no warmth or mercy, and yet, Corphish did not receive any injury from it – he didn't even look like he was hit!

  
  


"I got you covered, now get to it!" Chimeco said loudly at us, and we promptly went in hard and fast with our attacks. I leaped high in the air and fell down hard with leaf blade with no restraint, cutting its think fat fairly deep. Corphish however, was a far more relentless attacker, and kept hammering it's head, making use of his large claws as blunt instruments of pain. It roared in pain as it couldn't get up due to our attacks. Now, this would have all been fairly simple, but we were both suddenly knocked hard from different sides and sent reeling across the ground as I felt my own skin being grazed. The spheals seemed like capable fighters, and were not about to let their brother go down without a fight. Corphish got up almost immediately.

  
  


"Ow...can be painful if they get a lot of room to do that, but I'm not about to let a couple of stupid spheals get the better of me!" He said, and I watched him use his claws to hit a rolling spheal, as if he was playing baseball. I had to give him credit, he was a lot stronger than he looked. My shoulders felt. very, very odd after I pulled myself to my feet. I held them, hoping to the high heavens I didn't dislocate them when I got knocked hard onto the ground. What I felt was...well...not what I expected. Ok, I confess , it was really freaking me out, since there was movement from inside my shoulder!

  
  


"AAH! Oh shit, oh fuck!" I said, staring at each shoulder alternately as I held them both tightly. Chimeco took her eyes off the fight for a second.

  
  


"What, what?!" She said looking at me. "Take your hands off, I'll take a look, I'm good at identifying and helping stave off minor injuries quickly." I nodded, still in a panic and wrenched by hands away from my shoulders. I could still feel movement from inside my shoulders, which seemed to be pushing their way to the surface. It felt sickening, like there was something that was living inside me, and was trying to break free, like a parasite that had been growing inside me, using me as its host, and it was now it was time to break free of its shell. I felt something push through smoothly out of my shoulders, which surprisingly wasn't painful, but it just felt so very, very unnatural and bizarre. Chimeco suddenly looked amused and giggled at me.

  
  


"Hehe, you've never once made use of your vines before? Quite a few pokemon can use those – pretty late to discover them, no?" She said to me, clearly seeing that my panic was over nothing. I looked at my hidden limbs – two vine ends were indeed poking out of my shoulder. I knew that some pokemon that had some plant properties had these for self defence and preservation. I was a big fan of David Attenborough, so I did see myself as reasonably knowledgeable on this sort of thing, receiving regular injections of trivial knowledge from his TV series, but in hindsight, it seemed that I didn't know that much at all.

  
  


Such trivial knowledge could become very useful in this world, and it was a blessing that I should indeed count. I tried to feel for the control in the vines that were poking out of my shoulders, and after a few seconds of flipping my mind in every different direction, I managed to get them back within my body. Useful for combat and self defence? They probably were, but I had no time to try and figure out how to use them. I saw Chimeco struggling to protect Corphish with psychic barriers from the constant attacks of our assailants. I eventually readied myself for combat again before getting back into the battle.

  
  


"Corphish, I really think you should have waited for Floyd!" Chimeco said, looking mentally strained from trying to block attacks aimed at Corphish using some form of telekinesis. I stood back and assessed the situation. They all seemed close together now, so I could cut them all with one razor leaf swing. Indeed, it seemed like the best course of action. Now, if only Corphish would get out of the way.

  
  


"Corphish, shift to the side, won't you?!" I said loudly, winding up for a powerful volley of highly sharp leaves. This one would be delivered from my tail leaf rather than my head one, forgoing accuracy for raw power.

  
  


"I'm doing good, don't worry – I can hang in here!" Corphish yelled, who had just jumped up at the sealeo and clamped one of his claws in it's fatty skin, and was attacking with the other claw. The sea spray clouded my concentration, so I had to unleash the attack now, or I'd lose all focus.

  
  


"Aw for fuck sake, Chimeco, get him out of there! That spheal's going to do something to Corphish!" I yelled, but Chimeco was evidently having splitting headaches from all the strain of protecting Corphish.

  
  


"After this, I need a rest!" She said, her eyes narrower than normal, and floated swiftly over to Corphish, wrapped her tassel around him and mysteriously vanished. I had no time to question where, as I swung my whole body round, swinging my tail once, and viciously let out a fairly small, but dangerous group of razor sharp leaves that delivered a many fairly deep cuts on those foolish pokemon who decided to attack us, and a vicious scream to accompany the release of such an attack.

  
  


"Huh, maybe your attacks aren't as flimsy after all – not bad for a foreigner!" It was Corphish for sure, who must have been teleported right behind my by Chimeco. I saw one of the spheals go down, clearly no longer up for fighting, and even the sealeo looked like he was on his last legs. It let out another roar, which seemed to be one of fear instead of anger or aggression.

  
  


"Hey hey, just kidding! You done good Floyd, but I'm finishing this off." He said and raised his claws in the air, and once again jumped forward and slammed the both on the sealeo. It was too weak to resist the attack and fell forward on the ground unconscious. "Oh...yeah!" Corphish said in triumph. This felt like an achievement for this little group, and I even clapped a few times.

  
  


"Ok, can we just move on now before they wake up?" I said impatiently, since I didn't fancy the idea of them taking vengeance on us at all. I had barely noticed, but mist seemed to be shrouding the place ever so slightly, giving a more mysterious feel to the coast. To be honest, I found it a somewhat pleasant distraction to the sea spray. We had barely took a few steps before we could see a large shape in front of us – and it was moving. Moving towards us.

  
  


"Look, can we just rest for ten minutes until my headache subsides?" Chimeco said from behind who was resting on a rock.

  
  


"Shh...there's something there, and I don't like it." I said hastily, staring at it. The spheal which I missed, suddenly rolled into the mist towards it, or at least in it's general direction. Presumably, it was either fleeing or seeking protection from this thing. If only that were that little story over, but fate decided to make us do an encore. I heard a loud animistic moan that chilled the blood in my veins as I saw it lumber towards us. I could barely make it out, but it seems like Corphish had already identified it.

  
  


"I think it's their daddy...and he's pissed! Sorry Chimeco, no breaks here!" It was obvious now that he mentioned it – a walrein, and I shuddered in anxiety. It bellowed in anger, and I felt a chilling breeze gently blow from its direction, as the temperature seemed to drop as it approached us. Corphish couldn't take it anymore and immediately charged at it, rather skilfully dodged it's tusks to clamp onto the walrein with great force. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to have much effect on it, and the walrein tried to shake him off, but Corphish was stubborn, and continued the assault. Whacking him with his other claw, however, was almost useless against it's extremely think and resilient hide. Corphish was trying every trick he knew in the book, but none were working very well. He eventually lost his grip and came scuttling back to us to avoid a rage-driven counter-attack.

  
  


"I can't do a thing against it! Everything I know, and he doesn't seem to be too badly injured from it all!" He said, waving his claws in panic, his confidence clearly ripped out of him. "Do something Floyd!" He said as I saw it continue to move forward to us fairly slowly but surely, with no apparent way to stop it from it closing in on us like a zombie with no way to kill it. I immediately swung round and used razor leaf with all my might – not like such a slow target could dodge it, so I could afford to aim and prepare. I looked round and saw some narrow cuts in it, but did I really come close to stopping it? No.

  
  


"OK, I'll try a physical attack, I get way more force that way." I said, looked it right in the eye, but it was only now that the walrein did something. It opened it's mouth wide, and I knew fine well what it was about to do, remembering the sealeo from earlier.

  
  


"Out of the way!" I yelled and we all dived in different direction to avoid a threatening beam of ice. It narrowly passed me, and the deathly chill that I felt from it gave me a true indication of how dangerous this pokemon really was, and it didn't stop there. The beam still continued to fire as he rotated his head to aim at Corphish who just jumped out of the way, but there was no avoiding it this time, and he was hit square on. I saw and heard him yell in pain, but it soon faded quickly as I swore I could even see his body temperature drop. It was incredibly fortunate that the walrein could no longer use ice beam, and needed to recharge.

  
  


"Distract him Floyd! I'll help Corphish!" Chimeco said, as she tried to bring about Corphish and warm him up so that he could fight again. I had no choice really. I annoyed it purposefully with a weaker leaf blade from my head lead, and it bellowed in anger at me, and tried another ice beam attack, but I dodged its primitive, yet very powerful attack with ease.

  
  


That was the key advantage we had over these wild, uncivilized pokemon – we could think and plan, but even primitive animals had very basic degrees of problem solving abilities, and this walrein was no exception. It stopped wasting it's time with ice beam, and, while I don't know how it did this, but it seemed to inhale, and lifted its head. Ice-cold wind seemed to be summoned from behind it, and enveloped me in a chilling gale. My body did not take it well at all, as I felt the chill biting my skin all over my skin. I had to react fast, or my body would become stiff with the cold. I looked right behind me – I could hide for now, and I dashed behind a large boulder to shelter from the icy wind.

  
  


"Can't we just run?!" I yelled to the other two. "Our attacks were almost useless against it! We're going to tire from exhaustion and the cold before it goes down."

  
  


"Screw that..." Corphish said, getting up. "Quit being a pussy, and let's all get in and kick his ass! We just need to all attack it at once, that should do it!" Rolling my eyes, I saw that I didn't have much choice in the matter.

  
  


"That's just too primitive! We need an actual plan – what haven't we tried yet?" Chimeco said. "Surely there's something we haven't thought of yet."

  
  


"Well, I haven't tried using my vines, but that'll be useless...or absorbing its strength...ok, I think I might have an idea, if running away is that much of an issue to Corphish's petty pride." I said, looking out from behind the rock. The walrein was still moving towards us, having no intentions of stopping.

  
  


"No, it's simple, I blast them with bubbles – rock hard ones, honest! You blast them with leaves, and Chimeco...just do what you do, OK?" Corphish said, and it was then I kind of snapped under the stress here.

  
  


"Oh, shut the fuck up and let me explain!" I said, and inhaled. "Ok...I jump on it's back and I latch onto it and drain it's energy. I keep that up, and it should start to tire out eventually, and hopefully I won't freeze."

  
  


"That'll take ages, though!" Corphish protested, but I arrogantly held up my hand to silence him.

  
  


"The idea was, that it might soften him up slightly for attacks. Chimeco, you're going to have to be more offensive here for this to work. Its thick flab won't provide much protection against some of your psychic powers, no?" I said to Chimeco, who looked like she had a eureka moment.

  
  


"Oh course! God, I should have thought of that earlier!" She said.

  
  


"Either way, the essence of the plan is to exhaust him. Corphish, while bubble blast or whatever you like to call it won't do much at all, try to use it to knock him off balance." Even Corphish now looked like he was happy to go along with my ideas as I tried not to snicker at the thought of him admitting that those blue pellet things were bubbles. More power to him though if he gets them to fashion them like bullets!

  
  


"OK, I'm going in now." I said, and climbed into of the rock, and jumped over the ice beam that was fired at me, and landed on the walrein's back latched on, and started draining it's strength. "Go, now!" I said, signalling the others to come in while I continued to absorb it's energy. The pair of them wasted no time, and I saw Chimeco's eyes glow oddly, and suddenly the walrein writhed in pain from the searing headache that Chimeco caused.

  
  


Corphish didn't waste any time either, and took advantage of it's pain and shot its head rapidly, but it didn't do much, and it's balance wasn't toppled remotely. I could see and even feel the walrein prepare an ice beam, but I could tell it was still disorientated. I wasn't going to take any chances though, and right before it fired it, I swiped the back of its neck hard with the leaf on my head, suddenly causing it's head to tilt back in pain, and fired the beam right into the sky, and then, Corphish finally did something intelligent. He fired those rock-hard bubbles right into it's open mouth, and this most certainly hurt it. It roared in pain once again, and it looked like it was finally starting to give way. I didn't stop draining it of energy, wanting to make this chubby aggressor fall unconscious. It didn't have the energy to shake me off anymore as its attempts to do so came to naught. I clung on like a leech, as if I was sucking blood from my host.

  
  


"Hey hey! I'm going to finish..." Corphish said, but was cut short by Chimeco, who just blasted it with a beam of strange, psychic energy, finally causing it to topple on it's side. I jumped off to avoid being squashed underneath it, landing cleanly on the ground. It looked exhausted and in pain, and it wasn't going to bother fighting us anymore – we had beaten it. I sighed in relief, staggering a bit.

  
  


"Right, excellent work...come on guys, let's go go go!" I smiled, as not only did all this energy make somewhat hyper, I realised I successfully lead us to victory – I was getting good at this! "Oh, boy, I'm gonna race you both to the base of Mount Horn. See you there!" I said as I started running there. I could see the base of the mountain in the distance, and I tilted the leaves towards the sun to absorb sunlight, giving me even more energy. I had to stop doing this as often, or I would become an addict to this.

  
  


"Wait up!" The others called out from behind me, but I wasn't going to stop. They'd find a way to catch me up, and the pressure of being left behind, I'm sure they wouldn't stop either. The sea spray started to fade as we branched away from the coast and into the mountains. The other guild members would see us soon, and who knows – we might even just beat them there, providing the terrors in the mountain don't slow us down to much. Right now, I felt that nothing that Mount Horn possessed could possibly stop us at all.

  
  


"It's really good that I was here, wasn't I?" I said, grinning at them. "Else, you might have had to go home, or be at that fat bastard's mercy."

  
  


"Floyd...Ok, I admit, I don't think we could have done it without you." Corphish replied, rolling his eyes and smiling.

  
  


"Of course Corphish! You can't simply replace Floyd Munro!" I said, thinking back to my human life for a moment. Nope, I couldn't be replaced there either, not even in The Kyogre Is Dead, as my skills and expertise for the band were surely vital to any shows we put on. That void that I left behind would no doubt be in the lives of my friends and family back home needed to be filled once again. Sure, I might leave a small void in the guild, but sacrifices have to be made, right?

 


	8. Looking Into The Sky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Floyd takes command and nearly gets himself and his friends killed. Too blunt maybe? But a happy reunion was in place as he moves ever closer to his goal.

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum

  
  


Chapter 8: Looking Into The Sky

  
  


  
  


What could I say? This forbidden trip to join the others was going swimmingly so far. Traversing the craggy coast went surprisingly well, in spite of the conditions and aggressive pokemon thrown at us, and it was it a real treat to get away from those harsh conditions. Corphish and Chimeco seemed to start having more faith in my judgements, but this to me was a double edged sword I didn't feel too comfortable with. Yes, I could direct them to do what I wanted them to do easier, such as choosing how we get up and over Mount Horn, or better yet, get them to go around, should it be easier or quicker. However, if I make a bad decision, I could cause serious harm and although the fate of those two weren't exactly of much consequence to me, it was pretty much my duty to try and help them through this, since they were helping me out as well. It felt strange, having this increased responsibility on my shoulders, and considering I had very little knowledge of the land around these parts compared to the other two, I'd still have my work cut out for myself. Still, I felt good, soaking up the blessed light of the sun. The other two quickly caught up with me as we stood at the base of an impressive looking mountain.

  
  


"I assume this is the Mount Horn that you referring to...and you're sure that it isn't best to go around it?" I asked Corphish, looking at the mountain with my pair of inspecting eyes.

  
  


"Can't you see Floyd? Look how the mountain is shaped – going right of it is impossible, or we'd end up in the sea, since you can see that it's peak actually forms a very high cliff side, hence it's name, Mount Horn." He explained.

  
  


"Ok then, can we go left? We should really try to avoid that nasty looking climb of possible." I asked, questioning his odd suggestion.

  
  


"No, Floyd – see to the left, at those incredibly dense forest? It's known as Oblivion Forest, and there's a good reason why is has such an in-your-face name. More than half of the people that go into those cursed woods never return, and I really don't want to be another statistic. Like I said, I planned the route – the climb won't be easy by a long shot, but it's pretty much the only way that we could make it to the base camp before they all start the expedition." I took a look at Oblivion Forest from a safe distance. While almost an entire kilometre in the distance, I could see the jagged, uninviting tree branches, which seemed to scream 'DO NOT COME IN HERE!'

  
  


I could just imagine what was hiding in there. All sorts of deadly pokemon, all stronger and more vicious than their counterparts in the other parts of the world from the constant fighting with one another, the ecosystem there upchucking some real monstrosities. Perhaps my imagination was running wild, but either way, the peak of Mount Horn looked a lot more inviting in comparison. It wasn't all that jagged and danger ridden by the looks of it at least, nor did it look that much more dangerous than that craggy coast we just traversed.

  
  


"Alrighty then, we go straight up the mountain then – looks like it may take quite a few hours to get up there." I said and started moving forward. There was no point in wasting time. We might as well just get over with – the sooner the better. I hated to imagine what could come out during the the twilight hours on Mount Horn, so haste was important.

  
  


I immediately marched swiftly towards the mountain and started the ascent. It didn't seem that tall a mountain, but boy was it steep. It would be a harsh climb say the least. I hastily guided the others to walk with me while trying to master my shoulder-vines. It was, as you'd expect, very difficult, like trying to operate an extra pair of limbs. It was very tricky to do so while walking, but I had no choice but to try my best. I heard a chuckle from behind me, no doubt from Chimeco.

  
  


"This is a lot harder than it looks. I mean, you have no limbs at all you have to control, imagine having...well...six? Kind of..." I said, as I pulled my vines back into my shoulders without using my hands. I guess I could try using them later when we get a rest. Pretty much every feature of a living being was important to it's survival, at least in theory, though Arceus must have been extremely high designing some lifeforms, so I couldn't be sure. Not that it would matter too much, as Uxie had to have the answers and be the way home, so I hopefully wouldn't have to endure having this body for too much longer. During my deep thinking about the possible results and consequences of this scenario, Corphish suddenly spoke.

  
  


"Ok guys, I'm hungry." He said and started getting some food out of his bag. "Can we stop for ten minutes?"

  
  


"This coming from the guy who seemed to be in a big hurry, but yeah, I agree. I could use a sandwich..." I said and sat down and started eating it. I can honestly say that the human world sandwiches were much better. This seemed almost artificial in comparison, but I remembered something I forced to teach myself during my brief time in the cadets when I went away on a two week camp when I was fifteen years old – food can taste good, but it's primary purpose is to fuel you with energy. Keeping this in mind, the sandwich wasn't all that plain and soulless, even for a person who secretly was quite a fan on fine dining. Corphish had already finished eating, and before he could tell us to hurry up, I shot a look at him that was to give him the message of 'You, be patient...I mean it.' I always hated being interrupted while eating.

  
  


"...Think there's even a chance they'll send us back?" Chimeco said, sounding slightly concerned, to which Corphish scoffed at.

  
  


"Look, I'm sure even right now, they're regretting the decision of telling us that we can't go. I mean, if we can't be trusted to be along side the guildmaster and the bastard Chatot, then why on earth would they trust us to look after the guild while they were away? It's retarded beyond belief. Also, I'm sure we're better explorers than Bidoof – I mean, he tries his damn best and is improving, but he's not really that capable, Diglett, who is only thirteen years old – probably only got picked from his dad pulling a few strings and quite possibly Croagunk – barely ever see him do any exploration jobs anyway."

  
  


"Well, Chimeco is in the sort of same boat, but she's very capable, and besides, what would be the point of sending us back anyway after we had proved ourselves by taking quite a dangerous route, at least so far." I was reminded here by a movie that told me that someone who is brave doesn't go looking for trouble, unless they are stupid, and I would have never gone into such danger as a human, but had I become any braver as a snivy? Probably not. Men and women can prove to do things they normally wouldn't under extreme circumstances, but this was day to day life now, and while it had its moments, admittedly, I hated it with both my body and mind.

  
  


After finishing my sandwich, I got up and started heading up the mountain immediately, seeing that Chimeco had also finished. I crudely took a fairly large swig from my water-skin, which made me realise that this mountain didn't have that irritating sea spray battering us by the coast. There was hardly anything dangerous here so far – a few shroomish waddled past us, but they didn't bother paying any attention to us, however, I remembered one of them mentioning about aerodactyls living here. I always imagined them living in a place like this long ago, but of course, they probably weren't extinct in this world. Well, they can't be too numerous I guess – predators at the top of the food chain are never numerous in the ecosystem in which they live – it's the simple laws of nature. It wasn't that big a mountain, there couldn't be more than five, surely. Not only that, I could see places to hide dotted on the mountain – a couple small dug out caves where we could hide if necessary.

  
  


The ground here was a lot more stable at that on Mount Bristle, so we needn't have to worry about the occasional rock rolling at us at high speeds down the mountain side. However, it was still a tough and strenuous climb non the less. Saying it was steep didn't quite cut it, and sometimes, I had to use my hands to help pull me up. Now, it was physically demanding, don't get me wrong, but certainly within my capabilities, and it really showed how much fitter I became over the past month. Corphish, however, was no mountain climber.

  
  


"Help me up, would you?" He asked us, looking slightly embarrassed, and chuckled, clearly trying, but failing miserably to mask his embarrassment. Chimeco promptly responded by lifting him up with telekinesis and putting him on flatter ground.

  
  


"Don't ask me to do that too often." She said, without sounding frustrated.

  
  


"Yeah yeah, headaches and stuff." Corphish said. While it would normally have been seen as something of annoyance, Corphish's tone and body language was that of understanding. It was a lot steeper than most earth mountains at this altitude, though Mount Horn was probably more of a very large rock than a mountain. Plant life was quite scarce here, considering it wasn't too tall a mountain, which I assumed wasn't as tall as it looked taking into account my smaller body size. For Chimeco, it was just a case of levitating up – lucky bitch. Unfortunately for me, this next part would require some actual rock climbing. I wasn't half bad as a human, but my shortened limbs would be crippling for sure, and my large nose kept on getting in the way, so any benefit I had from being fitter was pretty much negated.

  
  


"I swear this was easier when I was a...back...home." I said, sweating. Couldn't let them know and lose all trust in me. Who would trust a raving lunatic who claimed he was seemingly legendary creature at one point in time? Not me, and there's no way on this planet I could prove it. I stretched up and continued climbing, but I ended up getting at one point. I could have asked Chimeco for help, but my pride completely stopped me. I had dignity and strength, and I would get up there by myself. I didn't know how to though, but upon my pondering, I got a very good idea – if I could get my vines to do as I wanted to...

  
  


"It's ok, I think I can manage." I called out, and brought the vines out of my shoulders. That was the easy part, and I started shifting my mind to find the muscle that could operate them. I felt my left hand start to slip and I made another grab for the mountain side and accidental slammed my body against it. It was mildly painful as I bashed my right shoulder against the rock. I had a better grip of the ledge, and managed to remove a hand to rub my shoulder, or at least the area where the arm joined the body, trying to deal with the pain. I could feel the rest of the vine inside and I also was sure I had found the muscle that might be able to control them. I tried to focus my mind on that muscle, and indeed, I could now feel myself extending the vine in my right shoulder, and then did the same to my left. It felt utterly bizarre, yet natural at the same time. I looked up the little cliff – perhaps I could use them to hold onto something up there. I extended them to the top.

  
  


"Chimeco, could you direct them to hold onto something." I said, and after a slight pause, she responded.

  
  


"Move them to your left, and forward a bit – there's a large rock that you can hold onto. You're not heavy enough to move it so don't worry." I did as instructed and I felt the rock – clearly, the vines also had nerves running up them. I held into it and used it to help haul myself up the ledge. They seemed quite strong – perhaps enough to even have uses in combat.

  
  


"I'd going to need help again." Corphish said, who didn't even make an attempt to climb up, since it was way too steep for him.

  
  


"It'll be a massive mental strain on my brain but..." However, that would become the least of Chimeco's worries, let alone alone Corphish's, because at that exact moment, we saw a shadow at Corphish's feet for a split second before something large went right past him, and then he was seemingly gone.

  
  


"What the..." I said, peering over the edge, looking frantically around, and it didn't take long to see what made Corphish vanish from that spot. An aerodactyl no doubt, and it was just like I imagined them to be – fucking terrifying! Corphish yelled in panic, and I looked up in dismay, knowing that I couldn't do a thing to help. Chimeco on the other hand, kept her cool and used her head. While I watched the aerodactyl fly off, it seemed to suddenly crash into something solid while in the air, though what it was that it bumped into, I couldn't see.

  
  


"It's quite possibly one of my greatest defence techniques – sneaky, efficient, and, if you excuse my language, bloody hilarious!" Chimeco said, while I rushed over to the knocked out aerodactyl and got Corphish free of it's tight grip.

  
  


"You're not hurt, are you?" I said, inspecting him. He didn't seem physically injured, albeit a bit shaken up. "Well, Chimeco, that was fantastic! We should head up the mountain quickly before that son of a bitch wakes up." We wasted no time in doing so, but we had barely made a move be heard a blood-chilling screech from behind. There was clearly more than one aerodactyl who wanted us dead and eaten!

  
  


"Aw, fuck!" I said loudly, looking behind us, and it was already moving in fast. I turned my head back round and continued to run. That other aerodactyl wouldn't stay unconscious for long, and trying to fight two out in the open could bring about something very, very bad. Hiding seemed improbable, but looking in all directions on the mountain face made lady luck shine on us. I spotted a small cave dug in the side of the mountain – our pursuer might be able to fit in side, but he could be warded off at the bottleneck with Corphish's attacks. Yes, that seemed good.

  
  


"In that cave!" I yelled as I leaned forward and picked up speed and dived inside with Chimeco right beside me, her mind clearly highly strained. Corphish was a bit slower however, and I saw that he wasn't going to make it without some intervention. I looked a mere nose hair above Corphish's head. I would have to aim this well. Keeping my head as still as possible, I swing my tail leaf round with careful force, sending a small stream of sharp leaves right above his head. It caught the aerodactyl by surprise, and managed to get it to falter off it's flight direction, and bought Corphish just enough time to make it into the cave. It clearly saw it couldn't get us in here, and flew into the sky. We were safe...but stuck.

  
  


"Hey hey! I'm getting my ass saved right left and centre by you two, I'm getting a bit embarrassed!" Corphish said, and chuckled slightly. They seemed to be taking the current situation rather lightly, which I found odd, considering the danger that was facing, and is still facing us. "Well, shall we go deeper into the cave?" What a stupid idea, it'd just lead to a dead end.

  
  


"And you honestly think this cave is a tunnel through the mountains. It's just a dugout really, and it's incredibly dark. At least outside, you'll be able to see where you're going. I say we wait until they go away, and then make our move." I said, gasping for breath.

  
  


"How can you be so sure that they'll actually leave?" Corphish said, evidently thinking that his idea was better than mine. I was having none of that.

  
  


"Reality is, buddy, they'll get tired and bored soon if we stay here."

  
  


"That could take for hours!" He protested, waving his claws.

  
  


"Well, here's the deal – you go deeper in that cave, you go without me." I said, folding my arms "You're choice buddy." I knew I had got him this time, as I saw Corphish's frustrated look, clearly not being able to think of a decent argument against what I had said. Chimeco looked like she was just going to go with the flow anyway. As someone of influence, I now learned that this was effective leadership. If someone is stubbornly protesting against you, simply refusing to go along with their ideas worked, especially if they need you – hardly always successful let alone friendly, but it's the best I had for now. While I probably did need Corphish for protection, he didn't seem to realise that, or maybe he just didn't like the idea of going deep into the cave by himself, who knew. Corphish started walking to the edge cave, looking a bit frustrated.

  
  


"Not too close to the entrance!" I said rather loudly. At this moment, either Corphish fucked up, or we both did, for what I saw next is a clawed leg suddenly thrust it's leg inside and grabbed Corphish. If I never spoke so loudly...

  
  


"That idiot!" I said, running after him and out of the cave, with Chimeco following suit. It got worse. The other aerodactyl who Chimeco knocked out earlier was conscience again and was coming at us for another shot. This all seemed to happen in half speed as I could see Chimeco about to protect the two of us with another barrier, but Corphish looked quite screwed. I didn't really think much of what I did next, and if I could see myself doing it, I would comment on the fact I was being stupid instead of brave. I looked right at the aerodactyl that was getting away with Corphish, and shot both my vines right him. I stared intensely as its legs, leaning forward with my teeth bared as I made them grab hold of the aerodactyl's right leg. I grabbed the vines with both my hands, and as I expected, I was immediately lifted off the ground. Well, it was too late to let go now, as I must be hanging ten meters in the air and was rising still, bit that was tricky and painful – indeed, I managed to hold on, but not without strain and pain. With the wind in my face and the pain of holding on with my fairly unused vines that needed exercised, it was hard to see where I was going when I looked ahead, but upon looking behind me, I could see Chimeco, and she looked like she was defending herself well.

  
  


"Floyd?" I heard Corphish yell at me in surprise. It seems like my selfish nature had been shunted aside for the moment – as much as Corphish's fate would matter not to me after I get home to the human world, I couldn't just let him die, and I knew he might well do that if I just let him be carried off. The strain on my arms and shoulders toughened as I could see we were being taken to a small flat near the peak of the mountain. I was starting to doubt the aerodactyl knew that I had grabbed on, and as soon as it landed, I wasted no time. I immediately jumped up at it's face in surprise and wickedly slashed it across it's face, cutting into the very tough hide. I could hear it yell in as much surprise as it did in anger and pain. The shock of the attack was enough to allow Corphish to get free of it's grasp, of which he looked very grateful to be free from.

  
  


"...I didn't expect you to do something like that!" He said and started pummelling its head with blasts of large water pellets, not relenting in focus. I wasn't going to let the aerodactyl get an attack of some sort in at all, and as soon as Corphish's attack started to weaken, I swing round viciously with another attack, using my tail leaf almost like a battle-axe.

  
  


"Again, Corphish!" I advised and he followed up with another attack, as we kept forcing it back, adding more wounds to its now rather-battered body. It suddenly shrieked loudly, hurting our ears before lunging at us one last time, but Corphish leaped up and once again brought down the hammer, smashing the back of its head hard with both claws.

  
  


"YES!" I yelled in victory, the adrenaline filling me with a sort of thrill. Said thrill almost seem to make me more aware and heightened my senses, for I saw out of the corner of my eye Chimeco fleeing towards us with the other aerodactyl in pursuit.

  
  


"I couldn't gold him off! AAH!" She yelled as Corphish went in with fast, poised to strike again with his claws, but missed his target and the aerodactyl made him pay for it by scratching him quite deeply with one of it's claws. I never knew Corphish could scream like this, but it was high and very loud in reaction to the intense pain that was delivered by the aerodactyl. That being said, he was an alarmingly tough cookie, and in spite of the nasty gash, still managed to aim and strike with a jet of water from his claws while lying on the ground in pain.

  
  


"ARGH!" Corphish yelled in pain, putting pressure on the wound to try and reduce the blood loss. Chimeco had stopped panicking, most fortunately, for when I went to see how bad Corphish's wound was, I did not see the aerodactyl's jaws about to close around me. I could have been eaten alive right there and now if it were not for a psychic blast from Chimeco that knocked its head away from me, leaving me with nothing but a light scratch from it's teeth. Using the last of my energy, I spun round, sending sharp leaves its way before jumping quite high up and sliced at the aerodactyl with my both my tail leaf and a dose vengeance to go with it. It had clearly had enough and fled. I inhaled and exhaled deeply in relief, thinking about this ordeal.

  
  


I must have came close to death about three times in hindsight of it all, and yet I never really thought about it during our time on Mount Horn. In fact, it was more thrilling and exciting than scary, and the was an uncanny satisfaction of kicking ass by slicing at your assailants with a battle-axe like leaf, and having all sorts of strange abilities. I still hated it, but It was now impossible not to accept the fact that I found it thrilling – all this dangerous exploring quite frankly did inject a lot of excitement into my life. In a way, I guess you could say that I enjoyed it in a very strange way, in spite of all the violence and all the risks. I hated myself for it though, since as a former human, I should be above enjoying violence of any kind. I couldn't help but have that part of my brain think that, and it sickened me to the core. I just hope it was just a physical feature of being a pokemon than some latent violent nature that I had with me all this time. This thinking almost seemed to blot out Corphish's grunts and yells of pain, as Chimeco applied a field dressing to him, assuring him that if he can get up and walk down the mountain, he'd be able to get better help at the camp. This import information was just background to me. What was I becoming...

  
  


"...You don't look badly injured at all Floyd, is something wrong?" Chimeco said. I stalled for about five seconds and replied..

  
  


"...Just taking in the view..." I said and started walking down the other side of the mountain, with both Chimeco and I supporting Corphish down the hill, suddenly realising how tired and exhausted we were. We all had our last oran berry to keep us going, but even then, it wasn't helping all that much. We had been awake for a very long time and had been very active, and not even the sunlight seemed to provide me with much of a kick. Corphish looked like he was about to nod off at any second however, so we had to nudge him a few times to make sure he didn't completely nod off. Very suddenly, Corphish's head turned, and mine followed suit to see what he was looking at.

  
  


"I knew we should have went through the cave..." Corphish said, his voice shaking a bit. Indeed there was what seemed to have been another cave dug in the side of the mountain. Perhaps it was a tunnel after all, though we couldn't be sure.

  
  


"Well, we got here..." I said, but Corphish suddenly looked angry, and I prepared myself for his incoming rant.

  
  


I knew it all along!" He said very loudly at me, almost spitting as he shouted. "We could have avoided all this trouble with them and this gash on my side which still hurts like a bitch, and it's only thanks to Chimeco isn't still bleeding." He said breathing deeply, his eyes fixed on mine, refusing to blink. Anger was quite often contagious and was liable to spread, and this was no exception, as I scorned at him.

  
  


"I saved your miserable life, and this is how you thank me? If it were not for me, you would not be here ranting right now! Show some gratitude your elders, you ungrateful piece of shit!" I said loudly back at him. I had never felt so snubbed in my life, and I hadn't felt this angry in a very long time.

  
  


"If you had only heeded my suggestion...you do realise explorers avoid danger if possible? Take the safest route that doesn't hinder the exploration too much?" He said, trying to spew his ways at me. I inhaled deeply, trying to bring myself to say something mature back.

  
  


"Ok, how could I have known it was a tunnel and not a cave, and how do you know that it's not just two caves? You merely suspected it, and where I come from, tunnels that go through mountains are unheard of." A partial lie with tunnels that were built for roads, but he didn't need to know that.

  
  


"Just...lets go to the camp. Perhaps not the best bunch of decisions I made, but I got us here, no?" Corphish grumbled, still feeling awake and walked on, holding the dressing that Chimeco put on. Again, Chimeco just stayed out of the argument, and just shook her head. The sun was starting to get lower in the sky, and it wouldn't be too long until night time as we walked onwards, all fighting our tiredness and exhaustion. I drank the last in my water-skin, and I was now pretty much out of edible supplies.

  
  


"Chimeco, buddy...hover up and see if you can see the camp, will you...?" I said sleepily, and she did so. She looked down and I could see her smile – I knew it had to be good.

  
  


"They're just finishing putting it together! We made it! Just past the trees, probably just under half a mile!" She said happily and suddenly moved quickly towards the site. Corphish seemed to follow suit, almost ignoring their own exhaustion I kept up and followed them. While in the small patch of trees, Corphish suddenly signalled us to stop.

  
  


"What is it?" I asked, and Corphish pointed ahead. I leaned forward and looked through the bushes to where he was pointing. Wigglytuff and Chatot were talking in private, with Chatot clearly trying to explain something to the mentally-haemorrhaged clown. Would I deny my own curiosity and eavesdrop? Of course not! I crawled silently through the bushes quietly to get in earshot, and let's just say, what I heard was very interesting.

  
  


"I have no idea why they're not here." Chatot said, shaking his head. "I did as you asked guildmaster. We went on ahead to plan the camp while I ordered Loudred and Sunflora to lead the rest of the guild to the camp, so they would we would have a plan ready for them to set up and build."

  
  


"Are you sure they all went in one big friendly group?" Wigglytuff said, with his same, rather stupid looking smile.

  
  


"Absolutely, unless they went away while in the group." Chatot said, shrugging.

  
  


"Well, I'll go and ask Sunflora and Loudred if they have seen our missing three friends then." Wigglytuff said, keeping his silly smile, which seemed to fade gradually, and then, suddenly vanished into the nether realm. It was the first time I had seen him with a serious expression on his face, and it unnerved me somewhat. I had no time to contemplate about Wigglytuff here upon looking at the scene. Chatot looked very uneasy, and I could tell by his facial expression that Wigglytuff being in a serious mood meant bad news.

  
  


"Actually, I don't need to, because I already asked. Now, Chatot, what did you think they told me?" Chatot sweated in nervousness, and did not respond. "Well, I know fine well you know, but I'll tell you anyway. They hadn't seen Corphish, or Chimeco, or Floyd since they left the guild building. I will try again with you, Chatot – why do you think that is?" He said, moving close to Chatot's face, and he still didn't get a response. Wigglytuff's expression morphed from seriousness to anger, and Chatot looked like he wanted to run, even though he wasn't allowed to.

  
  


"Because _you_ ordered them to stay behind at the guild when I had _specifically_ told you that _everyone_ had proven themselves capable to go! I would ask you why that is, but I already know." He said and jabbed Chatot's chest. "It's for the sole reason, that you hate them. That's all, isn't it?! You couldn't stand Corphish complaining about you behind his back, and for quite frankly, legitimate reasons. You couldn't stand Chimeco helping Floyd void a disproportionate and unhealthy punishment. You couldn't stand Floyd for telling you to, if you excuse the harsh language, 'fuck off' after the disgraceful treatment you have been giving him. I have half a mind to send you back to the guild, apologize to them, bring them back, and apologize to them again with everyone watching and listening!"

  
  


"However, I need you here...unfortunately. Let this be a reminder to you that I am the guildmaster and not you. Lie, or purposefully do a bad job again, and I will...I'll reduce your wage. Get out of my sight and make sure the camp set up is totally finished." Chatot didn't need another telling to, and sped off behind the tent, and I must admit, seeing him getting chewed out like that was one of the highlights of my time in the pokemon world. So it would seem like the bastard had actually lied to us in order to simply not have to be with those he didn't like. I saw Wigglytuff sigh in frustration and sit down on the grass, looking quite sad and muttering to himself about whether he was too harsh to Chatot or not.

  
  


"I'm not too surprised to be honest..." Chimeco said quietly. "I guess we should show our selves to the guildmaster. It'd make him feel better."

  
  


"Waitwaitwait wait, wait. Hold on. Wigglytuff – I thought he was just some ditz who happened to be a genius explorer?" I said tor her.

  
  


"Well, he's a very hard person to figure out. I bet you would never guess that he's actually fifty-four years old, his only signs of age can really be noticed if you look at him really closely. I think he's only serious when he actually really needs to be. Other than that, he indulges in his own innocent and childlike ways." Chimeco said, and decided to move forward to reveal herself, myself and Corphish to Wigglytuff. As soon as he noticed, he clearly returned to his 'normal' self and ran at us, with the most cheerful expression I had seen since I wound up being a Snivy, taking great bounces at each step with his large eyes becoming even larger.

  
  


"You came! Thank you!" He said and he hugged all three of us tightly. This was most discomforting, and I was never a 'huggy' guy as a human. I would turn down pretty much all hug offers from others, and especially from non-humans showing affection, so this felt particularly off-putting.

  
  


"Please...let go." I asked, though Wigglytuff had let go by this point anyway.

  
  


"Oh, sorry. It's just...well, Chatot made a mistake when announcing of who was to go on the expedition. I said to him to say that even you three were going, and I think he misheard me, but it's OK, you're all here now, my friendly friends!" He said gleefully. It was hard to say what Wigglytuff I preferred – the semi-scary serious one, or the slightly insane child-like one, but it was obvious that Wigglytuff himself preferred his usual self, since he did lie to us about Chatot. Whether to protect us from the rather nasty truth, saving Chatot's reputation or for guild cohesion, I couldn't tell.

  
  


"Why don't you go and see your fellow guild mates now, before you get to sleepy – you all look utterly drained, you poor friends" He said and entered his tent, coincidentally the largest, which didn't surprise me really.

  
  


"Think we should tell the others about Chatot?" Chimeco asked.

  
  


"No, for two reasons. One, I don't think Wigglytuff wants the others to know – I mean, if everyone found out the second in command was a dirty liar, I think it'd be terrible morale for the expedition, and second, we now have a weapon we can use against him; a threat. I want to keep it until we can use it at a more suitable time." I said, grinning slightly. I could really dent his reputation within the guild at any moment by simply revealing what he done. However, I intended to save it for another time.

  
  


"Floyd? I thought Chatot said that you failed to be accepted!" I heard a familiar voice say to my left. There was no mistaking it, as I saw a very happy looking Serge running towards me. I inhaled and held up my hand.

  
  


"No hugs, thank you, but I'm pleased to see you as well." I said, smiling, learning my lesson of what happened with Wigglytuff. "I'm coming on the expedition. Chatot and Wigglytuff had...communication errors when deciding on who was to go. Fortunately, we decided to come anyway like we were supposed to." I found it incredibly hard to leak the information about Chatot to him, but I resisted with a sturdy face

  
  


"You don't look all that happy, Floyd." He said, clearly concerned, but I somehow felt irritated.

  
  


"I'm just very tired. I've been awake for at least forty hours, and yes, there were a couple of fights along the way – my eyes are red, aren't they. Wait, are my eyes usually red?" I said, realising that I forgot what my new face looked like. I knew as soon as I'd lie down, I'd fall asleep, but I might as well get my stuff ready first. "Just show me to my tent."

  
  


"Sure." Serge said and led me over, and I dumped my bag inside. "Two per tent, we'll be sharing. I suppose I'd better tell Bidoof you've arrived. I'm sure he'd be happier sharing with Corphish, if he also decided to come."

  
  


"Yes, he did." I said. "There will be food and drink in the morning before we go, right? I'm gonna need a ton of it to recover after that hectic adventure."

  
  


"Oh yes." He said, packing his own things away in the tent.

  
  


"And something to sleep on or in?"

  
  


"Uh, nope." He said casually, as if it didn't bother him, but considering how tired I was, even the hard ground seemed to be comfortable. I heard gasps from other guild members as they laid eyes on Corphish and Chimeco, who were obviously very surprised to see them. I even saw Corphish collapse in exhaustion and tiredness, and was pulled into one of the tents. Chatot's expression showed his disbelief, but I could also see his subtle disappointment behind it all. I knew that he had not only lost what he gained, but also got a very strict warning from Wigglytuff.

  
  


I would still need to get my personal vengeance on him though. A top Dialgan maxim was to try and have some sort of retribution on someone who wronged you if possible, providing your revenge brings less negative outcomes to your target than the negative outcomes they brought upon you, as this would make sure that you keep the moral high ground while discouraging wrongdoing – something that caused a lot of controversy back home for some reason. A shunting of his respect seemed like an appropriate punishment for Chatot, and I wanted to time it well. As everyone started returning to their tents, still yammering on loudly, I turned around to head into my own, but that was when I saw an interesting tree formation. It didn't seem that unusual, and yet, I felt compelled to take a closer look.

  
  


"Going anywhere, Floyd?" Serge asked, and I paused for a brief moment, trying to figure out what was beaconing me there.

  
  


"Yes...I'll be back in a minute..." I said distantly, vaguely walking towards the forest. The pattern of trees...they weren't too unusual, and yet, they were distinctive in a way I couldn't lay my finger on. In an even stranger way, it was almost as if I had seen them in a very distant dream before, but to be honest, this did happen to me occasionally as a human. Such deja-vu was pretty much always the case of the person's own mind and memories playing tricks on them, so I scrapped that thought.

  
  


I went for a closer look, and I felt compelled to go through the trees, as if some pokemon based instinct inside me was driving me to. Again, once I was making my way through here, things seemed like a distant dream – it seemed extremely vaguely familiar, but as if I had viewed it before from a different angle, an angle I would not normally consider looking from. I pushed my way through the branches to, taking care to not make too much noise. I saw a couple a few unusual looking mushrooms, and a small group of ants scurrying across a log. They seemed big, but then I remembered it was because I was small. Then I found something of far more curiosity – it was bright red, and looked incredibly out of place, and it seemed like some sort of stone upon closer inspection.

  
  


Once again, curiosity got the better of me and I picked it up. It was no ruby, that's for sure – far to...strange to be one. Stranger still, it seemed to emit a faint heat. I hoped it was not some form of hardened droppings, as it would be the most likely explanation, but I held onto it anyway. Perhaps someone else would know what it was. Tiredness was hitting me again as I started heading back, and it was hitting me harder than ever, with my vision becoming ever so slightly blurry, and I had to consciously keep my eyes firmly open and breathe deeply.

  
  


Upon returning to the camp site, I gazed upwards, and saw a fantastic display of stars, my eyes obviously becoming fully accustomed to the darkness. Being a city dweller back home, I never had a chance to really view the stars, so I made the most of it by lying backwards to look at them. Now, I could see the occasional constellation, notably Orion back in the human world, but I could not see it here. I could recognize nothing that reminded me of home in that alien starlit sky. How I did not notice this before, I do not know, but on looking from one end of the sky to the other, I could see two moons. On almost every other case, I'd be admiring the night sky's beauty and wonder, but as for now, it filled me to the brim with loneliness. It made me realise that I truly had no idea how far away I was from home. Was I in another part of the galaxy? The universe? Another dimension, even? Were those Giratina worshippers actually correct in stating there was another dimension?

  
  


The feeling of true loneliness overcame me as I realised a grim truth – I was a lost, scared young man, trapped in what appears to be some other world, and being trapped in a different body. Nothing ever felt truly 'right' for me in the body of a snivy – the shorter limbs, the big nose, and especially the tail, and yet it felt trivial to the fact that I was away from home, and I had no idea how to return. I swore I could see things that were nearest and dearest to me back home in those stars if I squinted my eyes – my friends, family, and even my human self, but just like those stars up there, they felt unreachable. How desperate was I to try and follow local legends for glimmers of hope, and all the shit I went through, and still going through, was only to regain what I had lost. I had not really gained anything through out this ordeal all things considered. I almost felt like crying as my own vision went blurry, as It felt like little insects were pushing my eye lids close and massaging my brain into unconsciousness. The last thing I felt was my sleeping body being pulled into the tent next to me before I faded into deep sleep.

 


End file.
